New blog submission from FEDAC Ripollet!

The Conversation Assistants finish their tasks at all their schools today. We hope everyone has made the most of this experience.

……………………………………………………….

Patxi is a nineteen year-old boy who has spent six months with us. In December, he started to work in our school  as a conversation assistant, with children who are 3 to 12 years old.

He came to Spain because he wanted to practise Spanish and Catalan so, he was born in Girona and was living there till the age of 10.

Patxi´s work consisted on taking small groups of boys and girls and practising English with them. Sometimes he stayed in the classroom with the teacher and talked about any topic: a unit of science, England or one of his experiences. The result of having a conversation assistant is that our students have improved their speaking and listening skills a lot.

 Patxi is loved by eveyone in the school, not only by the children. The teachers are really happy to work with him. He is very enthusiastic, he wants to do his work the best he can  and wants to participate in all the celebrations and activities organized at school.

Along these months, we have noticed that he enjoys working with children. Every morning he arrives at work with a huge smile. It is very nice to work with him.

Montse Barros (English Teacher)

I arrived at my placement during the beginning of December.

I was given information about the School and the Governing Body that owns it, as well as more information about other FEDACs around Spain and the World. This allowed me to research a bit more about their curriculum and what kind of work they did, so as to get a better picture of how I could help. Getting to know the school wasn’t hard; a small five floor building/church which was originally inhabited by nuns. The teachers were very friendly and welcoming, and very soon I was settled in and ready to teach.

During my time in the school I have been given support from the English Teacher, be it support with teaching ideas/materials or simple support from all the teachers about my residing town and the possible activities to do.

I was invited to several of the dinners organised by the teachers, and I was also given the opportunity to go with the school on the Colonies (camping) which allowed me to further develop my skills working with children. It was also great fun!

Katherine and her tutor Montse have also emailed us to tell us about their experience and send us some pictures. Thanks a lot!

………………………………………………………………..

Katherine is a girl from Plymouth who has spent the whole course with us in FEDAC-Ripollet (Mare de Déu del Roser). To have had an English conversation assistant has been a good idea because the children have improved their listening and speaking skills a lot. She has practiced English with all the children in school (from P3 to Year 6)

Montse Barros (Katherine’s tutor)

I have been living in Catalonia since October now; working as a conversation
assistant in a school in Ripollet and I have to say that it is one of the best experiences of my life. Everyone out here is very friendly and I am really enjoying every moment.

I work in a primary school with children from the ages of 3-12. The students are very enthusiastic and really enjoy the challenge of speaking English (most of them at least!!). I have been made to feel very comfortable from the very beginning, being invited on various school trips and participating in all the school activities. The teachers are all really friendly, making the effort to speak in English and helping me in my feeble attempts to learn Spanish; they even put time for Spanish lessons with the younger students into my timetable.

With the students I usually take small groups of 5 or 6 students from each class every lesson for half an hour and revise vocabulary with them, talk about different topics, play games in English and go over grammar. Sometimes I also give presentations about life in England to the whole class and afterwards we talk about the differences between Catalonia and England. I have also been helping in the School Song Contest.

And I couldn’t have chosen a better family to live with this year if I had tried.  They told me I was in my own house from the beginning of October and are making sure that I see everything there is to see in Catalonia before my time here is up.

Basically this year has just been amazing and I will definitely miss Catalonia when I go back to England!

Katherine Weir