Beechen Cliff School and Petrus Canisius College students enjoy week of sport and culture! 

GCSE Physical Education students from Beechen Cliff School visited their student counterparts at the Petrus Canisius College, in Bath’s twin city of Alkmaar, over the February half term. The trip follows the incredibly successful exchange last year between the two schools.

Thanks to our schools’ partnership with the Bath Alkmaar Twinning Association, we have been able to once again combine some friendly sporting competition with new educational and cultural experiences, which will greatly enhance our students’ experiences.

The students from Beechen Cliff arrived to a very warm welcome from their Dutch counterparts, even though Holland was a wash with snow! The students spent the day enjoying their new surroundings, meeting their exchange families and relished the opportunity to engage in some ice-skating in the city.

Over the remaining 3-day stay, the students from the UK were put through their paces in a variety of different sports. Their skills were tested in some traditional Dutch sports such as Handball, Korfball, the Olympic Rings and Trampolining. For our students, this was a fantastic experience to learn new skills, tactics and to try adapting their existing skills to new sports.

The students also engaged in a teaching assignment to develop teamwork and leadership qualities. Working in small groups, both the Dutch and UK students needed to prepare and delivered a high quality sports session to one another. A real challenge for many but the outcomes of enhancing key transferable skills such as confidence, resilience and communication skills were certainly enhanced.

The students were also able to explore and experience the wealth of culture that Alkmaar and Amsterdam has to offer. Exploring the two cities was fascinating to many of our students who thoroughly enjoyed the heritage and history behind them. Visiting the world famous Body Worlds exhibition in Amsterdam was very beneficial for our students; the knowledge gained by this experience can only help them for their GCSE studies in Physical Education and Biology.

Overall, the programme has been hugely beneficial to both sets of students, particularly the students from Beechen Cliff. It has given them a real insight into a different culture and different sporting traditions. It has also enabled our students to foster relationships with students on the continent that will hopefully remain strong for many years to come!

A huge thank you must go to the Twinning Association who has been instrumental in enabling this programme to continue. Their unwavering support and determination to help provide these opportunities for our students is humbling and greatly appreciated.

We all look forward to welcoming the students from Alkmaar to Bath in June for another week of sport and culture.

 

 

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