Description

Junior Spanish Courses in Spain offer Spanish classes and summer school for teenagers aged 13 to 18  and are valuable training experiences to learn Spanish and develop intercultural, personal and social skills. They are aimed at secondary students from all over the world.

They integrate tailor-made intensive language and culture courses, as well as nature, leisure and sports activities, and trips and integration activities in the community. Our programs enable students to take part in the social life of the community. We have a program called “Spanish in the community and volunteering”, which allows developing learning objectives while developing personal and social skills.

Language stays can last between five and fourteen days, and can be organized throughout the year. The programs usually include three or four hours of language and culture classes in the morning, with 55-minute sessions. In the afternoon, students participate in training, community integration and volunteer activities (only for students over 16 years of age and with prior authorization of parents or legal guardians), as well as leisure activities.

We guide, help and work side by side with the organizers of language stays through all phases of the program. The courses are taught by teachers from the CIAM team.

Recipients

Students between 12 and 18 years from any secondary school in the world who want to live and intense experience of learning Spanish with their classmates, at the time they develop intercultural, personal and social skills. We offer a whole life experience in Soria, a true cultural journey in one of the oldest and most unique cities in Spain.

Main elements of the program

The teachers or leaders of these programs can design and customize the program that best suits the needs of their students. They can choose from a wide range of language and culture courses, workshops and activities. They can design their own program by choosing:

• Spanish courses: “Language in action”;
• Cultural courses and workshops: “Culture in action”;
• “Service learning” and volunteer activities, which are included in our project: “Spanish in the community and volunteering”;
• Nature activities;
• Sports and leisure activities;
• Cultural visits (cities, monuments, museums and festivals).

All our programs:

1. Combine language learning and culture (art, music, literature) through creative, playful and meaningful activities.
2. Integrate nature in the learning processes. Some language and culture classes, in addition to activities and trips, take place at the center’s yard and the natural surroundings of the city. We use the natural environment as a classroom and we progressively integrate outdoor teaching into our programs.
3. Include work in the classroom and allow exploring the environment through nature, leisure and sport activities, and cultural visits; and they guarantee participation in the life of the community (if activities of the program “Spanish in the community and volunteering” are chosen).
4. Are based on the personalized attention to each student’s learning process.

A wide range of language and culture courses

These are some of the courses available:

“Language in action” courses:

• Spanish language and culture course;
• Oral interaction course;
• Creative writing course;
• Comic-reading course.

“Culture in action” courses and workshops:

• Environment course;
• Painting course;
• Mass media course (cinema and radio in Spanish);
• Drawing workshop;
• Photography workshop;
• Cooking workshop;
• History workshop and visit to Numancia.

A wide variety of nature, leisure and sports activities

CIAM has a wide range of activities to complement the language and culture courses of our programs. These activities are always focused on learning and include a number of tasks that students have to complete. We help students learn with a detailed plan, both inside and outside the classroom.

Some of the most popular activities in our programs are the following:

Nature activities

• Nature, history, literature and cinema;
• Observe, feel and connect with nature;
• Interpretative hiking.
• The birds of the area: trip to Tierras Altas, the north of Soria, to observe birds and learn about them;
• Visit to a beehive to learn about bees and their environment.
• Gymkhana in nature.

Leisure and sports activities

• Adventure park in a forest;
• Zipline park in Vinuesa;
• Visit to the green areas of Soria;
• Swimming;
• Paddle tennis;
• Championships of cards, checkers, chess and other games.

 Cultural visits: cities, monuments, museums, festivals

• Madrid and the Prado Museum;
• Trip to the Abbey of Santo Domingo de Silos, and Burgos;
• Segovia and the Roman aqueduct;
• Soria and its castels;
• San Sebastián.

Spanish in the community and volunteering, a complementary option to guarantee the immersion of the student in the life, work and culture of the city

Helping students embarking on a new life adventure

Over the last few years, new trends in education have developed in the context of the European Union. These trends have taken shape in the Erasmus+ programs and other projects such as the “Alternanza Scuola-Lavoro” in Italy. All of these programs focus on a type of education and vocational training in which new citizens learn to build their professional and personal paths and develop a proactive and flexible spirit in order to be able to cope with the rapid changes of the labor market.

Competencies for life and environmental awareness

Since it was founded, CIAM has offered Spanish language and culture programs that have a strong link with the community and the labor market. Our courses are complemented by a program called “Spanish in the community and volunteering”. Although this program is orientated mainly towards university students, we have developed a special version of the program for secondary school students. Our aim is to help students achieve a well-rounded education.

The world of education and work are no longer considered as two separate realities, but rather complementary ones. The objective of CIAM is to create personalized and individualized programs that motivate students and help them discover their personal vocations, interests, and learning styles. We firmly believe that language learning should be an immersion in the life of the people who speak a language, have their own traditions and work and bet on this region.

Personalized project

CIAM prepares the didactic programming and activities related to company visits in partnership with the institutions of origin. In all phases of the project collaboration is close, as we consider it necessary to define the expectations, objectives and competences that the students need to develop. We guide the students to find the most interesting area for them, as well as a program of Spanish language classes and / or language of the specialty that best suits their learning needs. In order to do so, a CIAM tutor designs all phases of the project, always in collaboration with the tutor from the home institution.

The companies

The companies we collaborate with belong to different sectors, including environment protection, hospitality, social entrepreneurship, and archeology, among others.

The process

CIAM sets great store on the following phases of the process:

1. The design and preparation of the objectives and contents of the classes and the program before the arrival of the students to Soria.
2. The guidance to the students for the experience at a company.
3. The preparation of the student, in class or individually, for the visit to the company.
4. The visit to the companies chosen for groups of two to five students.
5. The preparation of a written dossier and an oral presentation to share the experiences outside the class.

Methodology

The sessions that take place in the courses, workshops, and activities of nature, leisure and sports, including cultural trips, are organized following dynamics and activities that involve the participants experientially. Reflection and inquiry about the work done are the essential tools used to build knowledge and guide their learning experiences. Language and culture classes include outdoor sessions once a week. In the program “Spanish in the community and volunteering” students use ethnographic observation tools and write a learning diary.

The teachers

The teachers of our language and culture courses are in charge of planning and developing the classes of our programs. You can check their professional profiles here. The specialized courses are developed by CIAM collaborating professors, many of whom are professors from some of the universities with which we have established agreements and partnerships.

Certificate

At the end of the program and after taking assessment tests, students will receive a certificate that will state the number of hours of training and participation in the activities, the objectives and contents of the courses taken and the final grade obtained.

Important info

The program includes:

• Enrollment in our courses;
• Accommodation in the student dormitory or with a family, in a full board basis (3 meals a day);
• General orientation upon arrival and orientation prior to trips and other complementary activities;
• Handbook of the cultural programs of the city and the area;
• Tandem program of Spanish / English language exchanges.
• Certificate of attendance;
• Accident and health insurance;
• Availability of self-printing service for teachers and students;
• Wi-Fi in the facilities of the center;
• Free access to the center’s video library, the dormitory and the public library.
• Free access to the computer room;
• Free access to the gym of the dormitory;
• Use of the administrative resources and program management of the center;
• Emergency telephone number 24 hours a day.

The program does not include:

• Plane tickets;
• Pick-up service to the airport;
• Textbooks for class.

Students can stay in our dormitory or with families. The dormitory offers meals in a full board basis, Wi-Fi, a TV room, a gym and a laundry.

The group must have a minimum of 10 students. In August, in order to stay in our dormitory groups must have 20 students.

CIAM offers free accommodation and full board in our dormitory to accompanying teachers (1 teacher for free for every 10 students).

In some countries like Italy, high schools need to work with a travel agency in order to organize the program. We offer this service through the agencies we collaborate with.

Price

Please, do not hesitate to contact us for further information and our prices: redes@ciantoniomachado.com.

Successful experiences

A number of middle and high schools from different countries have participated in our programs, including the Scuola Sacra Famiglia in Cremona and the Swiss high school Gymnasium Liedel.