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MODERN FOREIGN LANGUAGES 7
Removes’ Spanish Cultural and Study Trip
to Salamanca
Martha Beavan, RE
During February half term, there was a Removes’
Spanish trip to the city of Salamanca, a beautiful
university city two hours west of Madrid. This was a
fun trip, which consisted of some grammar lessons,
some speaking lessons and many cultural experiences.
We had two different teachers for our lessons, one
for grammar and one for speaking. We experienced
an interesting guided tour of the city, visits to many
different churches and cathedrals, a visit to the Casa
Lis Art Deco museum and a visit to the well-known
Universidad de Salamanca, whose 800th anniversary
was celebrated last year. The most popular of the
activities were
chocolate con churros
at the Art Deco
museum and the Salsa dancing lesson.
On Thursday, we went to see the Calisto and Melibea gardens, the
Roman bridge, had a walk around the city and we were treated
to an amazing farewell group dinner at
Casa Paca
restaurant. On
the last day of the trip, we went to Segovia on the way to the
airport and viewed the amazing mountain scape and the towering
aqueduct. Each day we had free time to go and look in and around
the shops in the
Plaza Mayor de Salamanca
(the main square) and
we really enjoyed this.
Each pair of students had a host family which looked after them
throughout the trip, and I think we can all agree that the breakfast
of hot chocolate and muffins was everyone’s favourite part of the
day. We walked to and from lessons each day so this gave us a lot of
freedom but the challenge was that the host families spoke almost
no English so all our dialogue had to be in Spanish! This was a fun and
educational trip and I have definitely learnt a lot of useful Spanish
and now know a lot more about Spanish culture. Our thanks go to Mr
Urreaga, Miss Carnell and Mr Martínez for organising the trip.
Spanish Short Film Contest
Angelo Donovan-Maddix, 5N
The short film competition was
advertised to us by our Spanish
teachers and a small group of six
Fifth Form pupils was assembled.
All the information we were given
by North London Collegiate School
was that the short film should be
approximately 4-5 minutes long
and should be about young people
and school life.
At the beginning the creative process was a
struggle as we were not entirely sure what
we wanted the film to be about. Following
much deliberation, we decided to make a
‘mockumentary’ about day to day life at
Bancroft’s. We convened once a week, every
Tuesday after school, and slowly began to
develop the characters and the plot. We had
a cast of five: Olivia Page, Gauri Godbole,
Charlie Coleman, Chase Fagan and Angelo
Donovan with Lola Angeli as the director.
Once we had decided the overall plot and
characters, although minor changes were
made throughout, we began to write the
script. Once the script had been finalised
and proof checked, with the help of Mr
Urreaga and Pablo Martínez Fernández
(our Spanish Assistant), we began to film!
Unfortunately, we were not allocated a
large enough budget to hire a camera crew
and build a set, so we had to make do with
filming with our phones and using venues
when we could. Despite this, the visual and
audio quality were excellent and, thanks
to the editing skills of Charlie Coleman, the
film turned out better than expected. The
film focused on the characters’ day to day
life and the ironic nature of the characters
gave the film its comedic side. For example,
Camila (Olivia) and Isabella (Gauri) talk
about how they are the best of friends and
then proceed to argue
and make snide remarks to each other.
When we went to North London Collegiate
School we watched the films of our
competitors: Haberdashers, City of London
and other schools from around England. The
films were then judged by a panel which
included a UCL professor and a Spanish
actress. We were awarded the prize of best
cast, with Gauri Godbole getting a special
mention, and some tickets to a Spanish film
festival. Despite narrowly missing out on the
top prize we were proud of our efforts and
remain convinced that our film was really
the best!