We launched a new school partnership with Colegio Guadalaviar, Valencia last year, beginning with the exchange of penpal letters for our Year 8s. Then, the same year group visited the school as part of our MFL Spanish trip to Valencia. Now it was time for us to host our new Spanish friends here in Ealing!

By Isabelle B, Year 9

On Saturday afternoon, a group of (slightly nervous!) NHEHS Year 9 girls congregated at Heathrow’s Terminal 3 Arrivals, waiting with bated breath for the arrival of their Spanish exchanges. We were all looking forward to welcoming our visitors, a group of girls from a school in Valencia (Colegio Guadalaviar), and hosting them for a week in our homes.

My exchange was called Carla and we immediately hit it off! She spoke English incredibly well and even liked the same Netflix shows as I did. My family and I wanted her to experience London, so we had a busy Sunday going to exhibitions and meeting others in Covent Garden and in the evening we went to the Royal Albert Hall for the Cirque du Soleil (amazing!!)

Monday morning came and off we went to NHEHS together. Carla was naturally a little bit nervous about going to an English school where she would be joining in all our classes, but she fitted right in, and so did the other girls from Valencia. Unsurprisingly, our Spanish visitors were perfect in our Spanish class!! Generally they really liked NHEHS, and they even declared that our school food was pretty good!

On Wednesday the Spanish girls took a day off school to do some sightseeing in central London (although I think the highlight might have been shopping on Oxford Street!) and in the evening some went to the opera.

Thursday came, and it was already time for the girls to return home to Valencia. The week had flown by! Carla and I have become firm friends and I’m hoping to visit her in Valencia this summer (Mediterranean sea, beach, sunshine… good deal for me!!)

This exchange was so much fun: I’ll definitely do it again, and I’d recommend it to everyone!