APRIL FOOL'S DAY

 Today's APRIL FOOL'S DAY, all about it on the previous posts from this blog in this link APRIL FOOL

KATE MIDDLETON, THE PRINCESS OF WALES, ANNOUNCES HER ILLNESS ON OFFICIAL VIDEO

Showing Kate Middleton, the Princess of Wales, official video announcing her illness as an example of a real listening practice as it has been shown on different media and after all the speculation going on about her in the last weeks.

RAFAEL DIESTE'S HOMECOMING 2024

Today IES Rafael Dieste celebrated the III Homecoming 2024! Here's a sneak peek video of the activity. Congratulations to all students taking part.

EXCHANGE 2023-24: FEEDBACK FROM OUR GERMAN PARTNERS

 Bringing you the feedback of the school exchange experience explained by one of the German students. Here's the link to the post in their school's page and below the translation into English.

Unsere Austauschfahrt 2024 nach A Coruña in Spanien

Our exchange trip to A Coruña in Spain in 2024

We, 19 students in the 10th grade of the Kronberger Altkönigschule, had great expectations as we waited impatiently for our plane at Frankfurt Airport on Friday, March 1st. Our destination was A Coruña, a coastal city in the northwest of Spain, where our exchange would take place. After changing planes in Madrid, we met our exchange families and many greetings were exchanged.

On the way to the families' houses, we not only noticed how impressive A Coruña is, but were also able to admire the untouched nature outside the city. The sea made surprisingly high waves, completely opposite to the south of Spain with its Mediterranean weather. In fact, the temperatures hardly differed from those in Germany - it even rained more often.

During the week, in addition to many excursions, we also visited the school of our exchange students and were able to watch the lessons. It wasn't very different from ours, although the Spanish students have some subjects that aren't taught at our school, such as Galician. What was also very striking was the behavior of the Spanish students. They were much more open than German students and their friendships seemed to be much closer than ours.

Our excursions took us to very different places, accompanied by our teachers Ms. Westenburger and Ms. Anselm. In the “Museo del Hombre”, which is a scientific museum about people and the human body, we particularly enjoyed the interactive area where you could, for example, measure your jump height. A particular highlight was our trip to four nearby villages, which were surrounded by idyllic nature and looked like they had come out of a typical Spanish film. After our visits to the lighthouse “La Torre de Hercules” (World Heritage Site) and the aquarium, we were welcomed by the city councilor for education in the town hall. As impressive as it looked from the outside, it was even more beautiful from the inside. Historical paintings hung in every room and everything was so elegantly furnished that you would think you were in a castle.

On Thursday we spent our day in the pilgrim city of Santiago de Compostela. There we visited the huge cathedral, where you can see the tomb of the Apostle Jacob and the breathtaking interior architecture.

In our free time we went on other great trips with our Spanish host families. Some students went to the coast and ate typical specialties, such as pulpo (octopus), or visited Cape Finisterre, the end of the world. Others were very lucky to be able to watch CD Lugo's local derby against Deportivo A Coruña. That was really great!

After this eventful week, it was not easy for many to say goodbye at the airport on Saturday, March 9th. With heavy hearts, we hugged our host families and Spanish friends one last time before we went back to Frankfurt. Each of us learned something from this exchange and made many incredible memories. I can therefore only recommend that everyone take part in such an exchange if they get the opportunity.

Author: 10G student

[14th CW] PIALE PROGRAMME: A MULTICULTURAL EXPERIENCE IN CANADA

This week "Rafael Dieste" celebrated its fourteenth cultural week on the topic of "FUSION CULTURE". Our teachers Isabel Viña Vilas, from the English department and Leticia Ogando López, from Physical Education, both talked to the students of 3rd and 4th ESO and the teaching staff about their experience of multiculturalism in Canada, as participants in the PIALE programme. The differences in both educational systems were also discussed and the students showed great interest in those aspects that could be transferred to our school.

APOSTROPHE WITH TIME

ST. PATRICK'S DAY 2024

 EVERYTHING ABOUT  ST. PATRICK HERE ON THIS BLOG.

GALICIAN IS ALSO SPOKEN HERE

 "GALICIAN IS ALSO SPOKEN HERE" ("AQUÍ TAMEN SE FALA GALEGO") is a campaign that started off at our school one year ago to promote and show that Galician is also spoken in cities, breaking the prejudices that intend to give a distorted image. This campaign, which spread throughout the shops and businesses of our neighbourhood and city centre, in the immediate environment of each of our students, has now expanded all over Galicia with more than 200 schools taking part, so you can find these poscards or posters in many places around Galicia. The campaign is also promoting Galician music and culture on social media networks. 

Everything about this campaign can be checked out on their website aquitamensefala.com: the videos with Viggo Mortensen, James Rhodes, Tanxugueiras, María Vázquez, football clubs... and many more, who all speak Galician and are proud to show off. The campaign has also reached Germany with our German exchange students.

The image on this post shows the many languages spoken by students of the Rafael Dieste, which proves the diverse linguistic heritage our school holds. It's a fortune to have such a live culture and to drink water from so many fountains. Proud of our diversity!

EXCHANGE 2023-24: Saturday 9th March, GOODBYE TO THE KRONBERG STUDENTS

Today we said goodbye to the 19 students from Kronberg, Germany, who have been with us this last week. Here's the farewell photo at Alvedro airport and all the other complete group photos taken during their stay, but there are previous posts following below this one for each of the days. 

Hoping they have a safe journey back. (Update: All arrived well and on time)

At the same time, this activity is my final collaboration with the school where I've been working for the last 16 years. I'm very proud to have worked here, to have taken part in activities like this one. Thanks again to all my teacher colleagues at school and in this specific activity specially to Julia Westenburger, Lara Anselm and Hilda Fraga, who have had an essential part in setting it up and making it work and also the help supplied by Belén Méndez, Isabel Viña and Isabel López Viñuela and the students taking part in it. It's been a great experience.

EXCHANGE 2023-24: Friday 8th March, DRYPOINT ENGRAVING WORKSHOP AT BELAS ARTES MUSEUM

 The last activity planned for the German students was a drypoint engraving workshop at the Belas Artes Museum in A Coruña. The students had the opportunity to make their own drypoint work and also visit the painting exhibitions by Rubens and Sorolla at the museum. 

(Special thanks to the museum curator Manuel Mosquera and staff for their assistance during the visit).

First they did the design, later the engraving process.

The results:

Finally, the tour round Sorolla's exhibition:

EXCHANGE 2023-24: Thursday 7th March, TRIP TO SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA

 Our second day-trip was to the capital of Galicia, Santiago de Compostela. Unfortunately it rained throughout all our visit there, and although it's said that rain in Santiago is art, it wasn't very comfortable to stroll the old town under umbrellas...

Our first stop was at the Cidade da Cultura (above) to have a view of the whole city from there and visit the Galician Library and Archive (below). (Photos from cidadedacultura.gal)

Later we went to the city centre and stopped at the local market below. (Photo: Guía Repsol)

After we toured the old town up to the Obradoiro square.

In the afternoon, we visited the inside of the cathedral, walking past the tomb of the apostle Saint James.

The weather was so unpleasant that there was no opportunity of taking a group photo, but the teachers got to take some at the Obradoiro square.

EXCHANGE 2023-24: Wednesday 6th March, PHOTOS OF RECEPTION AT CORUÑA CITY HALL

 This afternoon, the complete group of German and Spanish students and teachers were received by the councillor for education of A Coruña, Juan Ignacio Borrego, inside the city hall. The official photos taken there are included in this post.

EXCHANGE 2023-24: Wednesday 6th March, AQUARIUM FINISTERRAE & TORRE DE HÉRCULES

German students continued sightseeing A Coruña, today was the turn to visit the Aquarium Finisterrae and the Torre de Hércules. Above photo of the group at the Aquarium.

Gaspar, the shark of the Aquarium above.

Some of the German students before entering the lighthouse.

View of the aquarium and the city bay from the top of the lighthouse.

In the afternoon, the whole group of students had a welcome reception at the City Hall, photo below. All the official photos of the reception in this other post linked.