Spanish schools are looking for UK partner schools

The Regional Ministry of Education in Madrid would like to express their interest in establishing contact between Spanish secondary and primary schools here in their region and their counterparts in the UK. The aim of this collaboration would be to enhance foreign language learning by enabling students and teachers to work with a similar counterpart in another country.

The Bilingual Programme in the Region of Madrid was first introduced in the academic year 2004-2005 in 26 Primary state schools. The Programme has evolved substantially since then and currently the students of 297 primary state schools and 81 secondary public schools are receiving a bilingual education. This means that there are approximately 10.000 students receiving a bilingual education in the Community of Madrid.

In this Bilingual Programme, both in Primary and Secondary schools, a minimum of 30 per cent of the syllabus is taught in English. All areas, with the exception of Mathematics and Spanish Language and Literature, can be taught in English.

Since the Bilingual Programme began, one of the activities that have taken place is the Twinning Programme (to link each Spanish school with a school in an English speaking country). It offers the students the opportunity to experience and compare their culture with that of the twinned school and makes learning more meaningful and enjoyable. The Regional Ministry of Education is interested in finding and contacting Primary or Secondary schools to start a long term partnership and share experiences.

The objectives for those schools participating in the Twinning Programme are:

• To broaden the teachers' and students' knowledge and understanding of each other’s language, society, and culture and to learn to appreciate and to respect them.
• To establish, develop and maintain a lasting and sustainable relationship between schools in order to enrich the curriculum, improve language skills and motivation of the students.
• To enhance the students' language competence by means of activities such as: writing letters or e-mails to friends, using videoconferencing (Skype, messenger,...) sharing blogs and exchanging materials.
• Potentially, to visit the twinned school to strengthen the knowledge of the other country's culture and the use of its language by both teachers and students.

Main activities expected to be carried out by the schools are:

• Putting teachers from one school in touch with the other to enable them to communicate and share ideas and good practice methodology.
• Organising pupils in groups which can communicate with their counterparts, native speakers of their age.
• Arranging activities related to different topics of common interest to pupils: seasonal events, holiday plans, family, fashion, music, sports, school activities etc.
• Exchanging materials of different subjects (Geography, Science, Arts …) with the students of the twinned schools.
• Planning possible visits to the twinned school.

The Regional Ministry of Education will match interested UK schools with an appropriate one in their region.