Spanish Exchange Student spends time at Westleigh

SPANISH EXCHANGE STUDENT JOINS STUDENTS AT WESTLEIGH

At the end of last term, Dominic Ball who is now in Year 10 had a Spanish student stay with him and his family for 3 weeks as part of the Student Links programme set up in the Languages Faculty. It was a great opportunity for the Spanish student to experience life in an English school and for him to practice his English. For Dominic it was also a brilliant opportunity to practice his Spanish and learn more about Spanish life as well as make a great friend. This is how Dominic and his family felt about the visit:

We decided that hosting a Spanish student would benefit Dominic and give him an experience not many children have.  After contacting Language Link we were vetted, had a home visit and were asked lots of questions so they could match up a student that was the same age and had similar hobbies and interests as Dom.  We were matched up with Martin Diaz, 14, who is from Galicia, Spain and lives with his parents and younger sister. Martin was on his summer holidays from school and his parents signed him up to the programme so he could experience our lifestyle and help him with his English. He had a fantastic time at Westleigh High, he told us how different it was to his schooling in Spain as lessons here are more informal and practical and he really looked forward to coming in every day. He was welcomed by all Dominic’s friends who really made him feel at home and involved him in out of school activities too.  At the weekends and night times we did lots of activities he couldn’t do or hadn't done at home...we went to the "great British seaside"!, shopping at the Trafford Centre, bowling and had a big garden party for all our family and friends with afternoon tea just to name a few. Not only did Martin benefit from the exchange but we as a family did too...Dominic got to learn about a different culture as well as improving his Spanish and the rest of us picked up a little of the lingo (we also struggled a little on the telephone speaking to his Dad as his English was as limited as our Spanish!) and got to find out how different Martin’s way of life was to ours.