Letter home from Cordoba April 2025

I wanted to share with you some photos from the school I have been volunteering at in Córdoba in the north west of the country.

The reason for my visit has it origins in my summer school teaching in Oxford last year a group of students and their 2 teachers, Carol and Joe, came from Córdoba and invited me to visit during my trip.

I’ve have had a wonderful time. I can’t properly describe the warmth and love I have been treated with here. Argentinians are very warm and friendly and once you have met them that’s it, friends for life!

The staff have taken me into their hearts and it was difficult to leave this week. On Tuesday Ceci invited us all to tea at her apartment and laid on a fabulous spread that she and her mother in-law had been cooking for days. I was very honoured that Miss Pamela joined us. Miss Pamela and her sister founded the school 30 years ago. They started with an English language school but then build the Mark Twain Academy for 3-18 year olds . Hilariously they have a life size statue of Mark Twain sitting on a park bench outside the school but have had to quartern it off as everybody wanted a selfie with him!! 4 years ago she opens the Ken Robinson teacher training and English translation college to provide teachers for the schools.

It’s a bilingual school and after the teaching day is finished at lunchtime for state schools these teachers and students compete a ‘second school’ completely in English, they also take GCSE exams as ‘native speakers’ .

Teachers in Argentina have to take 2 or more jobs to make ends meet but at Mark Twain many work full time as the students attend from 8 am- 5pm and many of the teachers were students, then prefects or helping teachers before going on to become teachers and return to the school.

When I arrive at the school in the afternoons the students greet me warmly and come to give me a kiss if they are Secondary school or a hug in the primary school 🥰 and all the teachers greet each other with a gentle check kiss while talking 99 to the dozen. Honestly it’s enough to melt the shrivelled heart of the most embittered English teacher!!!

Yesterday I was called adorable. “ Don’t you think Miss Sarah is the most adorable teacher?” Miss Sole asked her 5th graders ‘yes!’ they all shout and give me a cuddle on the way out!!! So sweet!!

I have observed a few classes and taught or had input into every level from age 5 to 18 and 4 classes at the teacher training college in the 4 weeks I have been in Córdoba which has included discussing the political and social importance of the monarchy, the poetry of Emily Dickinson, similes and metaphors with 10 year olds and hot cross bun bread making with seventy-seven 5 year olds and seventy-seven 6 year olds, thankfully on two different days, that was a challenge and what a mess!!! However they all loved the process and taking their buns home at the end of the day.

I discussed Animal Farm with 14 year olds and scripts for an interview based on the characters in a Michael Morpurgo novel with 12 year olds. The standard is really demanding and all learning in the afternoon is in English.

I had the most fun during storytelling week on Primary school. The little 5 and 6 year olds had been reading a book called ‘Man on the Moon’ about a man called Bob whose job it was to go to the moon every day and take care of it. I wrote a follow up called ‘Shh! Don’t Tell Bob’ about a girl called Bubble who lived on the moon and it was her task to get the moon ready for Bob because she knew he had so much fun tidying it up.

With the 7 year olds I devised a Miss Marple type mystery call ' the Mystery of the Missing Diamonds'. It took place at Mark Twain Manor in the English countryside. Lady Twain’s diamonds were fond to be missing after a stormy night. 6 suitable suspects were presented-I had a few props for 6 children to wear. They went wild when it was disclosed that the cook had seen Miss Blackbook and John Twain kissing in the garden!!! The children were divided into groups and had to decide who did the crime and why and present their ideas on the stage.

To be honest I have seen little of the beautiful city and surrounding area but have really enjoyed my time at the school.

I have however had a wonderful 6 days over Easter in Salta and Jujuy in the far north near Bolivia where the famous 7 coloured mountains stand in the dessert amongst traditional adobe villages and there is a wonderful salt flat.

I have been staying in an apartment in a gated village. There are 7 or 8 towering 20 floor apartments, I’m on the 8th floor or Colorado with a balcony and view toward the city and a wonderful sunrise around d 8am.

In the complex is a gym and full size indoor pool where I went to aqua aerobics once and an outdoor pool and several restaurants, cafes , mini supermarkets, clothes and shoe shops, a barber and hair salon, a laundry and I don’t know what else. There are also little play parks which are full of parents and children in the evenings. It’s a 20 min walk from the school along a 10 lane highway and over a foot bridge which is why I chose it. It also has nearby the city Botanical gardens which I have really enjoyed especially the turtles in the ponds.

An English conversation class with Miss Cote where I met Ruben and then had a wonderful weekend with him and his partner Coatie and his family.

The Infamous ( at St Clare's in Oxford) Joe Bonfiglioni and his year 5 business class.

The amazing Miss Pamala (back left), who founded the schools and the staff who attended a tea party for me hosted by the wonderfully generous Ceci (front left) and Carol Soriente who I met in Oxford and invited me to Cordoba. (back 2nd from right(