One thing that stood out to me when visiting the schools in Patagonia was how active the staff were. They didn’t have access to many of the resources we are fortunate enough to have in Wales but the staff were creative to ensure children were able to take part and experience different activities. One example of the creativity of the staff is this picture of the class teacher reading the story of the very hungry caterpillar. The teacher created the caterpillars and butterflies and brought in real foods to show the children. Staff took a lot of time planning and preparing resources.
On our visit we were fortunate enough to be invited to visit a public school by the Welsh teacher so that we could see the difference between the Welsh private schools on public schools. The public schools do 40 minutes a week of Welsh lessons for learners. It was amazing to see the difference this little time made on the children’s Welsh language skills. Throughout the day we saw children taking part in Welsh lessons, singing, folk dancing and reciting. The children loved performing and asked us questions about Wales! It was nice to see the effort the staff were putting into promoting the language.
One of my favourite things to watch in the schools was the flag raising ceremony. Children and staff would sing as they raised the Argentine and Welsh flag each morning. The schools did this to show respect and give them a sense of pride and honour for their country and history.
