Friday, 13th November

Today, Bishop Luffa school is celebrating the 'day without uniform'. This initiative tries to raise money, because students are allowed to come to school in their ordinary clothes if they give one pound to charities. I find it quite interesting that some teachers are worried about this, as they think that discipline at school is connected with the clothes pupils wear. This emphasis on external signs and formality is quite shocking, as I personally think that behaviour has more to do with the personal rapport between teacher and pupils, and also with the emotional atmosphere in the classroom, rather than with dress codes and strict rules.

After observing during a whole week how Religious Education is taught at Bishop Luffa School, I realized that, even though the learning process is truly based on a student centred approach, most of the teaching was not as creative, challenging and innovative as I would have expected. In the class students are involved in many interactive activities, and teachers try to avoid the everlasting lecturing that is so characteristic in Spanish secondary schools. However, I felt a bit disappointed when I found that most of the teaching was based on rather dull slideshows which most of the time were only a mere reproduction of the textbook paragraphs. Certainly, the teacher proved to be a very energetic, enthusiastic and dynamic person, so students were easily engaged and interested in the lesson contents. But I was caught out by the amount of time students spent reading their textbooks and trying to figure out what the chapter was about. I couldn't help thinking that a flipped classroom approach would be much a more motivating, effective and productive way of teaching these contents. I hope this reflections can help me to be more aware of the drawbacks of my own teaching style, and that they will encourage me to find the strength and self-confidence that I need in order to experiment new teaching methods and techniques.

Overall, I think Bishop Luffa is an outstanding school, with excellent teachers and amazing learning standards. Some of their initiatives are really fantastic. For example, they encourage students to jot down their own personal opinion about their subjects, their teachers and the school management in anonymous notes that are regularly collected and taken into account. Some of these notes are even posted on the staff room, so that everyone can read them. I also love the way they use self-assessment and peer-assessment, since year 7 to year 13, so at the end of their secondary education these students are not only skilled in passing their tests, but they also become expert evaluators. Another amazing aspect of teaching here is the way in which they deal with different learning styles, respecting all individual needs and orientations. When asked to do an activity, students can choose the way to solve it – whether it be writing, drawing, creating tables of mindmaps, etc.