Exchange with Lakefield School, Canada

By Celia Arellano, Marta Armada, Lucas Burgos, Álvaro Diez & Leticia Galvín (4ºESO)

In March and April this year, five pupils from 4ºESO took part in our school's exchange programme with Lakefield School (Ontario, Canada). Five of their pupils came to stay in Spain with their exchange partners and their families for three weeks in March, including spending Easter here, and then all ten pupils went to Canada for the return leg in April. Here, our pupils tell us all about their experience.

Tell us about the school and your daily routine

When we arrived we realized the school was huge, in fact the average time to get from one room to another is 5 minutes. The facilities available were huge and amazing; they had tennis courts, soccer and rugby fields skiing slopes, and even a lake! There are a lot of big differences between the two schools. The first one is the location, Lakefield is surrounded by a lake, forest and nature. However Santa María is in the middle of the city. The only buildings that are close to Lakefield are the boarding houses: the village of Lakefield is 15 minutes' walk away. Therefore they have a shop inside school where everyone can buy whatever they need. More people were boarders than day students because this school was in the middle of nowhere.

In Lakefield we didn't really belong to a class, its not like in Spain when you are, for example, in 4ºA. Here every teacher has their own class, and depending on what subjects you've picked, you go to certain teachers' classes. The school is really multicultural, because you can meet lots of people from very different countries, such as India, Mexico, Bangladesh, Korea, etc. This makes LCS very enjoyable, and there is not really a big, important trend that everyone follows, but there are many different interests and points of view from people all around the world.

The typical day at school starts at 8:30am at the Chapel with announcements and grads usually give speeches every day. Classes started at 9:00am, and we only had 4 periods a day (but the classes were 75 minutes long) with an hour and 30 minutes break for lunchtime and rest. We finished school at 3:30pm, except on Wednesdays and Saturdays, which were half-days. On these days we had spare time in the afternoon, and we could go to Lakefield town. After school had finished, at 3:30pm, we had sport, and you could choose from things like football, tennis, hockey, rock climbing, fitness and windsurfing. At 5:30pm was dinner and then the boarders went to our boarding houses and had open houses (time when you can go to whichever house you want). At 8:30pm everyone had to be in their houses and start being ready for bed.

Their educational system is based in proving why what they have learned is that way so basically in classes they do more experiments and practice than in Spain. Personally I think that our knowledge is wider, however we do not know how to apply it in real situations. One of the main differences is that doing a sport is mandatory so everyone has to do a little bit of exercise, this exercise is compensated with the amount of fat that is in every meal.

How is domestic life similar or different to Spain?

Álvaro: My host family has been very kind to me, they have offered me everything I needed and they included me in the family just like another family member. The main difference is their food routine. They have breakfast just like us at 7am or so, then lunch is usually at 11am and dinner is at 5pm. Another interesting fact could be that here “heathy food” is actually very similar to the Mediterranean Diet.

Lucas: My host family were vegetarian. When I first heard this I thought that house was going to be hell for me, but actually, it showed me how to eat better. The first day the mom got me all sorts of winter clothes from this big closet that they had so I could be warm, and the second day she took me to the supermarket to let me choose snacks so I wouldn't be hungry. My host family couldn't have been better.

Marta & Leticia (boarders): The house in general was nice and tidy, and the bathrooms were much cleaner than we expected. On the first floor there was a common room where we all came together for meetings, birthdays or just movie time. We had to keep our rooms clean, of course, but there was a very funny cleaning lady too, called Jackie. Our Heads of House were two women taking care of all the girls in the house, and they were so nice to us.

What trips or other special events did you enjoy most during your visit?

Celia: We went to Toronto to the Roger’s Centre Stadium to watch the Blue Jays vs Boston Red Sox baseball match. Our seats were pretty good, we were behind the batter and we could see everything. Baseball matches are usually a bit slow or boring so the spectators started to sing and did a Mexican wave. It was great fun. In the 4th inning we went to buy some food and souvenirs from the team’s merchandising store. I practically bought the whole store for my little sister and I! At the end Blue Jays lost the match but no one minded or got angry and we had a lot of fun.

Álvaro: It took us 3 hours to get to Niagara Falls since we had to go through Toronto, famously known for its horrible traffic. When we arrived we had lunch on our own and then we walked to the falls. Although I had been there before, the falls amazed me again with their incredible power: 2,271,247 litres per second falling 50 metres and making a huge splash is a big deal! Firstly, we watched a movie that showed how the falls were formed. Then we went to the “Behind the Falls Journey” in which we could walk behind the falls. It was freezing cold there! The hallways were full of interesting facts and anecdotes about the falls: from the visit of Prince Harry to the intrepid lady who went down the falls inside a barrel and survived.

Leticia: The Walk Around the World event has been held in Lakefield School since their opening day due to all their international students, who had to cook a traditional dish from their country and display things from their countries on a table in the school. As Lakefield is an international school, the corridor was crowded with people and food. It was amazing to see such a variety of nationalities. The only thing you needed to do was to take a plate and walk around so you could taste the huge variety of dishes. This day was our opening act at this incredible school and I think we did really well. Everyone came to our table and was very enthusiastic about our display, asked for more food and wanted to learn some dance moves, but personally, the best thing about that day was meeting the other Lakefield students for the first time.

Marta: On Thursday April 14th, LCS participated in Earth Day. This event was all about nature and

activities that made us enjoy a day outdoors and help our environment. Leticia and I woke up very early in the morning so we could go canoeing while watching the sunrise, reflected on the massive lake beside the school. We put on some life jackets, got some paddles, took a red, shiny canoe and pushed it onto the lake. The water was extremely cold, but anyway it was very calm and the views were absolutely stunning. After paddling, we met with all the Grade 10's. The aim of this meeting was to create presentations about some charities. Then, we had to convince other grades which charity was the most suitable to receive the money that the school provided. Later on, Leticia and I signed up for an activity called Tough Mudder, in which we did some tasks that involved running around the school and into the forest, sliding, crawling and rolling on the ground... full of mud! After a charity lunch based on soups, we enjoyed a wonderful and moving drum circle performance. The two women in the show pretended to be native Canadians, and they performed some old songs and dances. Then all the students were divided into groups to pick up the garbage in the areas around the school. Our group, the exchange students, went along the road for 30 mins. When we came back we just went to the waterfront and relaxed mostly for the whole evening with some friends, watching the sun going down to finish our amazing Earth Day.

What did you learn about different nationalities?

Marta: When the pupils from the Southern Hemisphere thought about Christmas, they thought about summer, beach and sun, while we think of snow and cold. They celebrate the New Year in their bikinis and sunbathing! I also learnt a few things about Korean and Australian food and recipes that I could try to prepare now.

Celia: Asian students choose a new name when they are staying abroad.

Álvaro: I was surprised that there are a lot of Spanish students studying and boarding there. Spanish, Italian, Mexican, Indian, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, and more. All cultures living together without racism of any type. That is what I liked the most.

Leticia: I think in Spain generally speaking we can be quite racist, however one of the problems that causes that is because most people don't have the chance to meet people from other countries all over the world. Meeting people from different backgrounds, nationalities, traditions and ways of living is one of the greatest things in life: learning how they live, and knowing that deep down everyone is the same. Your skin colour doesn't make you better or worse. I'm really picky about people's ways of eating, and the Chinese are very different from us in that aspect. The thing I've learnt is to control myself and not to say anything at the dinner table, because that's the way they do it. Maybe for them our way of eating is horrible too.

What did your exchange partners think of their stay in Spain?

Lucas: Rebecca got a really good impression of Madrid. She really liked how close everything was, and if something was a bit far you could take either the metro or the bus. She also really liked that the school required more work from the students, which made us smarter and more hard-working.

Marta: Sarah was a boarder in Lakefield, so I think what she enjoyed the most was the warm welcome she was given by my family. She also told me many times that she was so thankful for all the home-made and restaurant food she tried in Spain. She had some trouble with Spanish though, because she had been learning the language for only the last 5 months.

Álvaro: I think our exchange partners really enjoyed their stay here in Spain because they were very sad to go back to Canada. They loved the welcome they got both from our families and the school.

Leticia: It was a very engaging and memorable experience for them. They got to experience Spanish culture and they met some extremely nice people and had a very good time. They loved our food too, and thought our school was very nice.

Celia: My exchange partner was Anna Natsu and over the 6 weeks that the exchange lasted she became a really good friend. She always said that Spanish people are very friendly and

welcoming, and that our food was really good. I think she had a great time here because she didn't want to go back to Canada.

What were the best and worst aspects of your experience?

Lucas: Maybe something that I didn't enjoy was having to take a car every time you needed to go somewhere and not being independent. The best aspect I think could be my host family, who were always organizing plans for me and for the rest of the students, and they were always really sweet and kind.

Marta: The best thing I got from this exchange was the amazing people I met along the way. I learnt a lot from them, we had so much fun all together, and I know that someday we will meet each other again. Other than this, I also had the chance to improve my fluency in English. Unfortunately, I felt a bit homesick, and I missed my family and friends from Spain

Álvaro: Looking back at the experience I have came to the conclusion that in Europe education is way better than in North America. Although in North America education is focused more on personal development rather than academic knowledge.

Leticia: One of the best aspects is that I met a lot of people from a big variety of places and different back grounds. Also that I learned to appreciate my school in Spain, because in Lakefield teachers don't really care what their students learn, or how much attention they paid in class or how much they learnt; they treated them like in university. And for me that's not the type of education I want to get, therefore I've realized that how teachers care for us is really important.

Celia: The best aspects of this experience are the opportunity to improve our English and meet wonderful people. The worst ones are being that far from my family and the food that was too tasteless and fatty.

Celebrating the Bard

You don't need to be an expert in English language and literature to know that one particular person stands like a colossus over its rich history and culture. That person is, of course, William Shakespeare, known simply as 'the Bard'. He is thought to have died on April 23^rd, 1616, exactly 400 years ago (which coincidentally was the day after the death of Spain's own literary genius, Cervantes). To mark this milestone anniversary and the Bard's priceless legacy, many events are being held all over the world, but especially in Britain and his hometown Stratford-upon-Avon.

Perhaps it will surprise you that much of his life remains a mystery. This has led to conjecture about his religious beliefs, sexuality and even if he was really the author of his works, although in truth this appears to be little more than a conspiracy theory with nothing real to support it. We know that he was the son of a wealthy glover (glove maker), born in 1564, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. He seems to have been educated in Latin at school, before marrying Anne Hathaway at the age of 18. The first of their three children was born, scandalously, just 6 months after their wedding. The second scandal was that he decided to abandon his family to start an acting career in London. In fact, he spent most of his working life in London's theatres, becoming successful and wealthy enough to buy land and property in his native Stratford. He died of unknown causes, possibly on his 52^nd birthday.

Shakespeare wrote many poems and was an actor, although he is most famous for writing plays, classified as either comedies (such as Much Ado About Nothing), histories (Richard III) and tragedies (Macbeth). He had a great influence on future generations of artists of all types: not only writers and poets, but musicians and painters too. His plays are written in iambic pentameter, a literary metre with five pairs of alternately stressed syllables per line. You can learn about this poetic metre here.

His works have been translated into over 80 languages and performed all over the world; they have also been adapted to different cultures, but always keeping his powerful modern words and thoughts about human nature. Good examples are this performance of Hamlet in Zimbabwe and Romeo and Juliet in Japan.

Through these works his influence on language is also extraordinary. Perhaps this can best be illustrated with a few numbers. The Oxford English Dictionary states that he introduced 3,000 words into the English language, and that around one in ten of the most famous and used expressions in English comes from his works, second only to the Bible. There are also 7,000 different words that he only ever used once in his works: to put this into context, the King James Bible (the official English-language Bible published during Shakespeare's lifetime) has fewer than 7,000 different words in the whole book. Apart from all this, in questions of grammar and spelling, Shakespeare's use was often adopted as the single accepted form in an effort to standardise the language.

So to celebrate the 400^th anniversary this year, why not discover more about the Bard? You could watch one of his plays, read into his life and times, or if you're visiting Britain, even make a trip to the Globe Theatre in London or his hometown of Stratford-upon-Avon. So, take advantage of every opportunity! Or, as Shakespeare himself may have told you,

“All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages.”
(Shakespeare, from As You Like It)

• Some curiosities:

  • English spelling was much more varied and less standardised than today. We have written evidence of over 80 different contemporary spellings of his name, but none of them was “William Shakespeare” as it is spelt today!
  • He started writing poetry during a plague epidemic, when his plays could not be performed because all the theatres were closed.
  • The date considered to be that of Shakespeare's birth and death, April 23^rd, is also St. George's Day – the patron saint of England and Catalonia. World Book Day was chosen as this date to honour Shakespeare, Cervantes and other literary figures who died on or near this date.
  • He was a master of words and insults! You can check his elegant, witty and even funny bad words here.
  • His plays have been adapted into many films. Macbeth, for instance, has been adapted by Japanese director Kumonosu-jō in 1957 (the title of the film in English is Throne of Blood), the American director Willian Reilly in 1990 (Men of Respect) and the Indian Vishal Bhardwaj in 2004 (Maqbool).  

Some expressions:

- to lie low (used in the play Much Ado About Nothing). Meaning: to hide, and stay out of trouble.
- a night owl  (used in Twelfth Night). Meaning: a person who is busy at night while others sleep.
- at a snailʼs pace (used in Richard III). Meaning: very slowly.

- to break the ice (used in The Taming of the Shrew). Meaning: make people feel relaxed when they first meet.

The information used in this article has come from a combination of the following sources. To find out more, please visit:

William Shakespeare: Wikipedia portal

A good starting point for all sorts of general information connected with Shakespeare.

BBC 2016 Shakespeare Festival

The BBC's 400^th anniversary commemorations and associated articles.

Shakespeare Birthplace Trust

"A charity promoting the enjoyment and understanding of Shakespeare's work, life and times."

No Sweat Shakespeare

A website with translations of Shakespeare's works in modern-day English and other articles about the Bard and his life.

Opensource Shakespeare

Shakespeare's Words
These sites contain all of his works and search engines, glossaries etc.

Wales

On the 1st of March was St. David's Day, the national day of Wales. Wales is possibly the country the British Isles that foreigners know the least about, so with this in mind, in 2º bachillerato some pupils made an informative slideshow about Wales.

Who knows which other country in the British Isles celebrates its national day in March? What can you tell us about that country? You can tell us in the comments section!

Some fun with English pronunciation

Here is an amusing poem that illustrates some of the difficulties of English pronunciation. If you know how to say it properly, you're a real expert!

Dearest creature in creation,
Study English pronunciation.
I will teach you in my verse
Sounds like corpse, corps, horse, and worse.
I will keep you, Suzy, busy,
Make your head with heat grow dizzy.
Tear in eye, your dress will tear.
So shall I! Oh hear my prayer.
Just compare heart, beard, and heard,
Dies and diet, lord and word,
Sword and sward, retain and Britain.
(Mind the latter, how it’s written.)

Now I surely will not plague you
With such words as plaque and ague.
But be careful how you speak:
Say break and steak, but bleak and streak;
Cloven, oven, how and low,
Script, receipt, show, poem, and toe.
Hear me say, devoid of trickery,
Daughter, laughter, and Terpsichore,
Typhoid, measles, topsails, aisles,
Exiles, similes, and reviles;
Scholar, vicar, and cigar,
Solar, mica, war and far;
One, anemone, Balmoral,
Kitchen, lichen, laundry, laurel;
Gertrude, German, wind and mind,
Scene, Melpomene, mankind.

Billet does not rhyme with ballet,
Bouquet, wallet, mallet, chalet.
Blood and flood are not like food,
Nor is mould like should and would.
Viscous, viscount, load and broad,
Toward, to forward, to reward.
And your pronunciation’s OK
When you correctly say croquet,
Rounded, wounded, grieve and sieve,
Friend and fiend, alive and live.
Ivy, privy, famous; clamour
And enamour rhyme with hammer.
River, rival, tomb, bomb, comb,
Doll and roll and some and home.
Stranger does not rhyme with anger,
Neither does devour with clangour.
Souls but foul, haunt but aunt,
Font, front, wont, want, grand, and grant,
Shoes, goes, does. Now first say finger,
And then singer, ginger, linger,
Real, zeal, mauve, gauze, gouge and gauge,
Marriage, foliage, mirage, and age.
Query does not rhyme with very,
Nor does fury sound like bury.
Dost, lost, post and doth, cloth, loth.
Job, nob, bosom, transom, oath.
Though the differences seem little,
We say actual but victual.
Refer does not rhyme with deafer.
0ffer does, and zephyr, heifer.
Mint, pint, senate and sedate;
Dull, bull, and George ate late.
Scenic, Arabic, Pacific,
Science, conscience, scientific.
Liberty, library, heave and heaven,
Rachel, ache, moustache, eleven.
We say hallowed, but allowed,
People, leopard, towed, but vowed.
Mark the differences, moreover,
Between mover, cover, clover;
Leeches, breeches, wise, precise,
Chalice, but police and lice;
Camel, constable, unstable,
Principle, disciple, label.
Petal, panel, and canal,
Wait, surprise, plait, promise, pal.
Worm and storm, chaise, chaos, chair,
Senator, spectator, mayor.
Tour, but our and succour, four.
Gas, alas, and Arkansas.
Sea, idea, Korea, area,
Psalm, Maria, but malaria.
Youth, south, southern, cleanse and clean.
Doctrine, turpentine, marine.
Compare alien with Italian,
Dandelion and battalion.
Sally with ally, yea, ye,
Eye, I, ay, aye, whey, and key.
Say aver, but ever, fever,
Neither, leisure, skein, deceiver.
Heron, granary, canary.
Crevice and device and aerie.
Face, but preface, not efface.
Phlegm, phlegmatic, ass, glass, bass.
Large, but target, gin, give, verging,
Ought, out, joust and scour, scourging.
Ear, but earn and wear and tear
Do not rhyme with here but ere.
Seven is right, but so is even,
Hyphen, roughen, nephew Stephen,
Monkey, donkey, Turk and jerk,
Ask, grasp, wasp, and cork and work.
Pronunciation (think of Psyche!)
Is a paling stout and spikey?
Won’t it make you lose your wits,
Writing groats and saying grits?
It’s a dark abyss or tunnel:
Strewn with stones, stowed, solace, gunwale,
Islington and Isle of Wight,
Housewife, verdict and indict.
Finally, which rhymes with enough,
Though, through, plough, or dough, or cough?
Hiccough has the sound of cup.
My advice is to give up!!!

Is a person and a human being the same thing?

As you have seen, most of the entries in this blog are from the English Workshop classes in school. However, occasionally there is an exception to this rule, normally when an interesting or different event takes place. This is the case for this blog entry, although instead of an interesting event, it was a wonderfully-written essay. Eva, a pupil from 3ºESO, has written a philosophy essay, in English, which has surprised everybody who has read it for its maturity of ideas and expression. Please read on, and feel free to leave a comment.

A human being and a person are not synonymous. The former is a biological species of the animal kingdom, and the latter goes beyond the biological condition. Someone is considered a person when their dignity, freedom and rights are recognized. They are rational beings, asking questions about the meaning of life and the nature of good and evil. Thus, they are different levels of humanity, but not exclusive. A human being does not have to be a person, however a person is ALWAYS a human being due to the fact that animals do not have the moral capacity to transcend nutrition, reproduction and sleep. So, it is possible to be a moral person, a legal person or both.

A moral person has their own ethical and personal values and can make decisions for themselves following their own opinions. A legal person on the other hand, possesses rights and legal responsibilities. They have to follow the law imposed by the system of justice. However, even though a moral person knows that they have to obey these laws, if they do not agree with them, they can decide not to do so.

As can be seen during the Roman Empire , when slaves were not considered people, either morally nor legally. They were treated like objects. They did not have civil or legal rights. They did not follow the rules established by law, common to all free citizens , but the ones their owners dictated. They did not possess dignity, they were not treated as people, they suffered abuse without any legal recourse because they were considered undeserving of it. They were not free, they could not quit being slaves, it was not a job but a condition.

Unfortunately, there are other ways to lose one's status as a person. For example: if a group of people are discriminated against because they belong to a certain ethnicity, religion or sex, they lose their status as people. If someone is not recognised by law or if they lose their capacity to make decisions, they are no longer considered a person.

Imagine a dilemma in which:

There is a happily married couple, and all of a sudden the wife gets deadly ill. Sadly, the hospital director denied them the treatment that would save her life, as they could not afford it. So, the husband decides to take the risk and steals the medicine. Should the husband or the hospital director go to prison? Who deserves it more? The director has not committed any actual crime, but the husband was just trying to save his wife. This is a moral question a person would have difficulty solving. However there is no correct answer because each person has their own vision of what is ethical and their own values.

Despite the truth that anyone should have the right to be a person, this does not happen in all parts of the world. So,how can this problem be solved? There is already an international document that lists Human Rights worldwide. However, Human Rights only exist if they are agreed upon by developed countries. They are the ones who decide what rights exist and which can be taken away. Unlike more problematic cultures that do not have the same rights due to poverty, corruption and conflicts. What can be done then? There is no answer yet, though ones needs to be found. Since the Western Countries that support the UN have less altruistic political interests than the media make people believe , this is not an easy task.

Hopefully, there are people who do not just accept the current situation , and stand up for a fair society. They are the heroes of our time who will build a better future for all of us.

2º ESO presentations - "the Age of Discovery"

The 2ºESO pupils have been doing presentations in the English Workshop recently. They had to choose from a range of themes connected with the Medieval period and the Age of Discovery. Here you can enjoy the excellent presentation made by Gabriela and Gonzalo about the explorer Amerigo Vespucci. The images are from their slideshow and if you click the link below you can listen to the audio version of their presentation.

Listen to the Amerigo Vespucci presentation

"El Santa" débuts in the European Youth Parliament!

Six of our pupils from 4º ESO and 1º Bachillerato have participated in the Madrid regional session of the European Youth Parliament España (EYPE). The event saw our school's début in the competition, alongside other prestigious schools from the Madrid area: Hastings, King's College, Liceo Europeo, Ramon y Cajal, San Patricio, SEK and Virgen de Europa.

One of the most impressive things about it is that the whole operation is organised by young people, not adults. The organising committee are participants from previous years, all in their late teens or early 20s. In the week following the regional session, the jury of the organising committee decides on the three strongest schools overall, and these progress to the national round with their three best-performing students, to be held later on in the year.

Our pupils in action - congratulations to Álvaro, Ángeles, Jaime, Leticia, Marieta and Víctor on a fine job!

The EYPE involves working in a team with pupils from other schools to propose a new law and try to convince the rest of the parliament to pass it. In order to successfully do this, the participants must do detailed research to become experts on their topic, work well as a team in their different committees to formulate the law resolution, and then use their public speaking and debating skills to convince enough members to approve their proposal. Additionally, the personal qualities of respect and also helping and listening were vital to enjoy and get the most from this session.

The participating pupils are separated into different committees, each dealing with a different topic (for example, the economy, gender equality, climate change and constitutional affairs). Each school had to divide its pupils between the committees, therefore ensuring that the participants did not know the other members of their group. The Saturday involves teambuilding and 'ice-breaker' activities, as well as team work to produce the law proposal. Sunday is the day of the General Assembly, the parliament in which the pupils interact and try to get their law proposals passed.

As various members of the organising committee rightly said in the closing ceremony, this is an event which promotes our pupils' use and appreciation of freedom of speech, intercultural exchange and dialogue: all things we need more, not less, of in today's complicated world. On an individual level the message was clearly not to stop here but to push on, turn this weekend into a long-term learning experience, and above all, not to limit yourself in life.

For the pupils and teachers involved it proved to be an intense and interesting experience, and one we will be very happy to repeat next year, having learned so much from our début. Our pupils did a great job both in their preparation and participation. Here you can listen to a chat with two of our participants, Víctor and Ángeles, about their experiences:

EYPE feedback from Víctor & Ángeles

And finally, you can enjoy the official video made by the EYPE media team, showing clips taken from throughout the weekend's activities:

Madrid 2016 EYPE video