In Spring Term 2018 we welcomed two student teachers from the University of Seville, Marina Cortez Galvez and Celia Ramirez Soto. They came to work with us for a for a two week placement from 5th March until 16th March to conduct a comparative study of the education system in England compared to Spain.

Miss Myszkowski was their mentor for this experience. Prior to the placement she liaised with the University of Seville to provide Celia and Marina with some pre-placement reading and research about our school and National Curriculum. This helped provide context for their placement before their arrived in the UK.

Once the students were here, they spent their first week observing in classes across school from Nursery through to Year 6. During their second week they planned and taught some cultural lessons for some of our children, and shadowed individual staff for their specific areas of interest.

The students thoroughly enjoyed their experience with us and only wished they could have had longer with us! They learned so much about teaching and feel that they would be able to adopt some of these strategies in Spain to further enhance and improve their teaching.

From our dialogue with Celia and Marina we learned more about the education system in Spain and how this is currently in a climate of change. It was useful for our teachers to compare pedagogical approaches to enhance their professional development, especially when we are a school with so many new to English children!

Overall this was a very positive experience for both Celia and Marina and our staff and pupils. We would welcome more students from Seville again in the future.