Children in both classes at Crosby Ravensworth had the excitement of welcoming a visitor from Spain before Christmas.  Silvia Carchano contacted the school looking for experience of teaching in an English school.

Everyone had such fun with Silvia.  She's written a piece about her experience on her school's website and we were very taken with her words: At Crosby Ravensworth,  everything is done with love (even the cooking ;-).

Click below to read the article by Sylvia

Click here to read the article on Sylvia's school's website

Hello, my name’s Silvia Carchano and I teach English to infant, primary and secondary school teachers here in Spain.

Last November, I earned a national scholarship awarded by the Ministry of Education and had the wonderful opportunity to visit Crosby Ravensworth CE Primary School in Cumbria, one of the most enriching experiences of my personal and professional life.

At Crosby Ravensworth, teaching everything is done with love (even the cooking ;-).

During my stay there, I could see how teachers worry and care for their students and foster their independence, creativity, imagination and collaborative spirit. For practical reasons, I mostly concentrated on pre-school and Class 1 and, by observing Mrs Ball, Mrs Corrie, Mrs Pattinson and Mrs Nye, I learnt a great deal about how to build children’s self-esteem, engage them in motivating, meaningful learning activities and resolve any issues which might arise in a caring, respectful way.

Small children usually have a short attention span; this is why I liked the fact that lessons were structured around brief activities that balanced all subjects.

Moreover, they have a lot of fun while learning, which I think is quite important but, apart from academic contents, what I could notice is that respect and cooperation are the key words here. Sharing the same physical space is crucial, as children learn how to interact with each other and share not only spaces, toys, books, computers, ipads or bee bots, but also –and more importantly– knowledge and ideas.

As children of different ages work and play together, they learn two important things: that “learning” doesn’t come only from the teacher, but also from other children (their age, older ones and younger ones), and how to interact in a diverse context while acquiring vital social interpersonal skills that will stand them in good stead for the future.

The world out there is plural, heterogeneous and varied so, for me, multi-age classes are invaluable educational assets nowadays. Of course, low numbers are an advantage, as children here can be given the personalised attention that bigger schools cannot provide.

Finally, one of the things that appealed to me most about this school, apart from its colourfulness and brightness, was the large number of displays created by pupils. My favourite one, which I think best represents what the spirit of any school (or institution or country) should be is this:

“We may be different, but at this school we all swim together”

So easy to say and so difficult to accomplish… but I truly believe that, at Crosby Ravensworth CE School, this is true.