¿Por qué vamos a España?
Partners in Excellence aims to provide students with extra opportunities to practise the languages they are learning. We are visiting Mallorca with this in mind: our main task is to speak as much Spanish as possible during the visit. Each student will be asked to identify a target for their linguistic development while in Mallorca. This could be to use a particular phrase, or to speak in Spanish in a particular situation. By the end of the visit, hopefully all students will have achieved this target.
¿Por qué Mallorca?
Why Mallorca? Well, last year the Partners in Excellence Spanish immersion visit took place in Tarragona on the mainland. This year, we're trying to develop our existing links with the Education Department in Mallorca. Each of the four schools in North Ayrshire, one of the participating authorities in Partners in Excellence, has a Spanish partner school in Mallorca. This gives the students and staff of each of these schools the opportunity to develop links on a school to school level. We would like to develop these links further: during this visit to Mallorca, we are being hosted by the Education Department in Mallorca and will have the opportunity to visit a number of local schools on the island.
¿Qué hay en Mallorca?
Mallorca is often seen as the typical British holiday resort with egg and chips available in every second bar and café in every town on the island. This is definitely not the real Mallorca, the Mallorca which participating students will experience first-hand through their contact with local young people. The island is indeed a holiday haven for tourists of all ages from the clubs of Magaluf to the sleepy fishing villages of the north and east coasts. During the visit you'll have the chance to experience the "real" Mallorca: not the Mallorca of the tourist brochures and the travel programmes on TV, but the Mallorca of the locals who live on the island and have lived there for centuries. You'll have the chance to get to know the island's capital city, Palma, from the insider's point of view; you'll meet young Mallorcans who attend school in one of the Partners in Excellence partner schools, and you'll see various parts of the island through excursions including Sòller, Sineu and Porto Cristo.
