Due to the present circumstances, this year we cannot travel abroad and participate in our European Exchange Programme, however we have arranged a Virtual Exchange Experience with two European secondary schools: Notredame des Anges in Ubbergen – Nijmegen (The Netherlands) and Eötvös Jósef Gimnázium in Budapest (Hungary). 

This is an English language project for our 3r ESO students, but we have just offered it as an optional activity for those eager to know about other students’ lives around Europe. 

On Tuesday 13th April, we had our first virtual meeting. In fact, we had to work in three groups so that everybody could have time to speak. The English teachers had already prepared the meeting and decided to talk about our schools, the educational systems and the changes in these Covid times. So, beforehand, students had prepared questions to ask the other students and, we must admit that it was a great experience. We learnt a lot of interesting things about our European partners. For example, our students were the only ones that wore a mask! In the Netherlands, most of their lessons are on-line and when they go to school, they do not have to wear their masks once they are in their classrooms. On the other hand, we also learn that some of our Hungarian partners’ lessons start at 7:00! And they also have lessons on Saturday! 

We are now looking forward to our next virtual meeting which will be in three weeks.