After a good night’s sleep, our Erasmus+ explorers were ready to greet the new day. We woke up to a slightly cloudy Ronda (some of us earlier than others), but still much warmer than at home. After making a few judgement areas at breakfast - FYI cornflakes don’t go well with warm milk- we began to prepare for the presentation morning. 

After getting into our traditional Morris dancing outfits (and chasing down some white t-shirts) we headed to the school.  The building was just stunning, and we enjoyed finding out about its history as a convent.  In the presentation assembly, our hosts demonstrated a wide range of their traditional arts, such as flamenco dancing, playing the mandolin and singing. We felt truly spoilt and their rendition of “Imagine” even made some staff (ahem Mrs Poole) feel a tad emotional in the context of the exchange. 

Then it was over to the partner schools, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria and Portugal all performed traditional dances, some with extras such as singing or musical accompaniment. Then, it was our turn. Our children were wonderful representatives for our school and performed their Morris dance brilliantly. Afterwards, Mrs Tinkler led a fashion show with a range of different outfits from Victorian styles to the 1950s, modelled by some of the students from Spain.

Next, it was time for a tour of the school, we met several classes and found out all about the different lessons children study and we were treated to some spooky Halloween songs and Spanish lessons (we had no idea that bat in Spanish is Murcielago) before heading on to La Bodega for lunch. 

At this point we were all ready for a little rest, we tried lots of traditional Spanish dishes following Mrs Poole’s rule of trying as many bites as your age and sitting with children and staff from other schools. Afterwards, we had a guided tour of Ronda and learnt all about the amazing history of the Arabic baths, Arabic bridge, roman bridge and Puente Nuevo bridge, as well as one of our children’s joy of the day, which was taking in the amazing views.

Next, we headed to the Plaza de Toros which doubles as an equestrian school, where we found Mrs Tyson and Mrs Poole’s happy place in la Biblioteca (the library) and Mrs Tinkler’s too (chatting to a horse). We even got to see some children learning to ride the horses and stood in the middle of the bullring. 

Before heading back to our accommodation for dinner and bed, we had some free time. We discovered that J isn’t that fond of ice cream and F is incapable of eating it without getting it all over her. Once we were finished and cleaned-up we did a spot of souvenir shopping. We’re glad to say our travellers are being extremely thoughtful and buying gifts for family as well as for themselves. The girls even named their Ronda bunny keyrings after some students from the host school - Marina and Clara.   

We’re exhausted after a very busy day and very excited for our flamenco and wool workshops tomorrow.