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On 9th March 2023, we welcomed guests from our partner school Liceo Duca D’Aosta in Padua, Italy. Between Thursday and Saturday, our guests had a chance to participate in a wide range of lessons and co-curricular activities at CLC, accompanied by their ‘buddies’ from LC3 to SFC2 (Year 9 to Year 13).

We were keen to share our experience of CLC and of school life in England, as well as learning first-hand about the lives of Italian high school students. Whilst chatting to our new friends at break or at the dinner table, we certainly expanded our knowledge of Italian culture and current affairs, and, coming from people of our age, the topics we study in our Italian lessons came to life and became ‘more real’ to us.

We spoke both English and Italian, helping each other out along the way. Even in such a short space of time we noticed our pronunciation improving, our confidence growing, and our understanding of spoken Italian advancing rapidly. We quickly got used to the authentic accent, learnt some common Italian expressions and even slang, thus developing our fluency, as well as breaking or confirming some common stereotypes. As one of our students said, "I learnt that Italians actually say Mamma Mia!"

Besides discussing the differences in the education systems, it was particularly enjoyable to find common interests, such as TV shows or favourite singers. As we discovered at our party on Friday, despite the differences in our cultural background, our music tastes turned out to be very similar. As for the language barrier, it seemed to almost disappear during the much enjoyed Just Dance battle.

Our guests were incredibly friendly and outgoing; they were not afraid to participate in lessons, no matter their level of understanding. Always willing to have a go, they were always engaged and active, and their contagious enthusiasm undeniably had a positive effect on the CLC community and encouraged all of us to contribute more to class discussions.

Speaking on behalf of everyone involved, the highlight of the exchange was our party where we had a chance to talk in a totally informal environment, play games, dance together and offer the Italian girls the chance to try some of the typical English snacks and rate them.

Needless to say, these three days were absolutely phenomenal; we learnt a lot from each other, had lots of fun and made new friends. We all tremendously enjoyed hosting our Italian friends. The girls’ never-ending optimism and eagerness to immerse themselves in the CLC community made us feel like we have known them for much longer than merely a couple of days and we cannot wait to meet them again in April!

Ekaterina, SFC1