The first meeting - our mobility to Barcelona

The meeting started with a visit to Monserrat with all the teams to get to know each other and visit an cultural and environmental important place for the region. The day after, a Monday, contained a school tour and a welcome by the school’s principal. The afternoon brought all the students to Sagrada familia cathedral which is obviously a must visit during a stay in Barcelona. We finished the day with the creation of T-Shirt, which had been painted at school with the participants. Tuesday was used to finish the building of the insect hotels which were delivered to local parks later that day. Group also investigated the history of parks around and the afternoon closed with a Barelona City Centre tour. On Wednesday all the group visited the botanical gardens of Matrimurta and enjoyed a day trip to Blanes with some free time at the beach. The final day was mainly used for presentations at school finishing off the project work. Afternoon was used for a guided visit to Parque Guell and the day closed with a goodbye pizza party near school!

The weekly activities adhered to the structure of the school day in Spain every morning from Monday to Thursday except for the day trip to the beach on Wednesday. Students carried out the tasks in the classroom and took breaks at the same time as the normal Spanish students and ate lunch in the canteen every day with the other students also.

There were many cross curricular links to subjects that the students follow in their own countries.  The T shirt designing was taught to the students by an Art and Design teacher.  The Insect hotel creation was an amazing project, which the Spanish students had been preparing in advance of the mobility for 6 months to enable the actual final product to be delivered to local parks that week. At the same time all students felt ownership of the work as the final touches were made in the technology department on the Wednesday session. A local expert in parks from the council helped the students with the design and the final outcome was excellent. Students had a real sense of satisfaction as they wheeled the beautiful construction out to the local council member for park in the nearest park to the school.  They also delivered another insect hotel to a local allotment at a residential centre for the elderly- the new generation was aiding the elder generation to pollinate their vegetable gardens. What a beautiful concept!

The subject of Geography was the most important subject studied by the participants as the project work every day was discussing local parks and their changing history.  The visit to the Marimurtre Gardens on Wednesday was a fascinating experience where one of the scientists from the outdoor lab at the centre described the evolution of the plants to fit into their local habitat and we looked at the variety of plants from across the the World that the German creator had gathered at the turn of the last century and brought to this special place with it’s individual microclimate. The biodiversity and botanical science learning experience here was excellent.

Handing over the bug hotel to Pergaso park

I’ve mentioned above how each daily activity was carried out at the school and how each subject was touched upon and how students got to see a day in the life of a Spanish student by following the normal timetable.  The in-school activities were usually student led- each group had to present their findings to the others and they were in mixed groups to enable them to work together with students from different countries. The first presentations were in individual countries as they were introducing themselves and their schools, and by the end of the week the students were in mixed groups presenting their findings from the survey that had been completed in each country prior to the mobility or their poster presentations on the history of local parks in each country.  

The afternoon activities were based on discovery of the cultural aspects of Barcelona. We had a brilliant day in Montserrat seeing the amazing views from the abbey and climbing the path towards the cross. The Parque Guell was a brilliant tour describing the genius in Gaudi’s architecture- the GREEN aspects of the design of the chairs with the tubes guiding water down to water the lower gardens  and the ergonomic nature of the tiled seating around the viewing platform were very interesting!