Linguistic immersion programme

Lekaroz (Navarra) November 2013

Twenty-five students of Second year of Secondary Education from our school enjoyed the opportunity of spending a week (from November 10th to 16th) at the Lekaroz hostel (in the valley of Baztan) and, at the same time, improving their knowledge of English. This was part of a programme sponsored by the Ministry of Education and the Conserjería de Educación of Castilla y León.

In the programme, the students participated, together with another group of students from a school in Madrid, in a series of activities with the aim of making our students aware of the importance of the protection of the environment. 

This protection is not only something that governments have to take care of: there are many useful things that can be carried out in our homes by acting sensibly.Our students learned about global warming, renewable energies, reducing, reusing, recycling, etc. They put into practice some of the things that they can do to help the environment: separating garbage into different containers, using “drop-off” centres, using public transport, reusing everyday ítems, and so on. 

 They created posters to inform people about the protection of nature, designed windmills –with paper, a piece of cord and a pencil-, did role play activities about the topic of the Programme, discovered ways of reducing the consumption of energy at home, etc. 

All this took place in the facilities of the youth hostel in Lekaroz in a very friendly atmosphere. Students had to share their lives with students from a different background, something that will probably help them to be more mature.

   All the activities were performed in English: greetings, activities with monitors and teachers, casual conversations during the breaks or the outings, and so on. Students and teachers have agreed that it has been a wonderful experience full of benefits not only from the point of view of the students’ improvement in the use of the English language, but also by making them more mature and responsable citizens. 

Needless to say, we would like to thank monitors and the hostel workers in Lekaroz for their excellent work, as well as encouraging the Ministry of Education to continue with such a good project in the following years.

Ana Mª de Cos y Pedro Escudero

Profesores acompañantes en la actividad