Cranford Review 2019

“Great tours, amazing accommodation
and even better memories, would be the
three ways I describe the Spain trip. It
created bonds between people who had
never talked before and created friendly
yet intense UNO wars”.
Sean Udott, (year 10)
trip
Barcelona
At
Cranford we believe that it is important
to teach children both language and
culture. We do this in class but there is nothing
better than exposing the children to the culture
of the language they learn in ‘real life’. This
builds connection and, in turn, connection
builds passion for the language. So on Tuesday
28th May 2019, Ms Manole and I took 20
students from year 9 and 10 to Barcelona.
We live in a world that is increasingly placing
more and more importance on languages and
global mentalities. We wanted our students
to broaden their horizons
through exposure to
different countries and
cultures. This provides
them with a great start to
their working lives and
allows them to experience
the wide world around
them.
The trip to Spain was a wonderful
opportunity to immerse ourselves
in Spanish culture. We visited
many famous locations such as:
Camp Nou, Parque Guell, La
Sagrada Familia, Casa Batllo
and Las Ramblas. Personally, I
thought that La Sagrada Familia
was the best part of the trip, by
far. La Sagrada Familia is a
church in the centre of Barcelona
that was designed by the famous
Spanish architect, Antoni Gaudi.
The church is nearly 200 metres
high and has stunning stained
glass windows that cast beautiful
colours across the church. It was
an amazing experience because
of how it contrasted with most
traditional, dark Gothic Catholic
Milton Ferreira
(Modern World Languages
Department)
churches. La Sagrada Familia was brightly
lit and covered in statues and Christian
imagery. We also got to appreciate amazing
views across the city as we went high up
above the city to visit Parque Guell and a
castle used in the Spanish civil war. I don’t
think a review of the Barcelona trip would
be complete without describing the evening
activities when we came back to the hostel
exhausted after a long day. In the
evening around ten of us would
gather in the lounge and play
UNO with Ms Manole and Mr
Ferreira; our games were very
competitive with lots of yelling
and screaming as everyone
ganged up on Mr Ferreira.
Overall, it was an amazing trip
that gave us a break from the
pressure of GCSEs and it was
very satisfying to make sure Mr
Ferreira never won a game of
UNO.
Alex Hickey (year 10)
“Overall, in my opinion the trip was great fun. The first day we did not waste any time and got to see many great sights
around Barcelona which were extremely beautiful. It was a great spot to take photographs. The trip was well organised
and allowed us to fully engage with Spanish culture and witness it first-hand. The stadium
was a good visit and an exciting one with an amazing opportunity to go inside
and have a look at the trophies and changing rooms. The tour of the Sagrada
Familia was a great addition as it allowed us to understand the history of
the building better and to increase our knowledge on the importance of the
cathedral to Spain. The trip in short was extremely enjoyable and exciting
and it was also very memorable. This is a trip that I will never forget”.
Ibrahim Musadiq (year 10)
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