Why we run exchanges

We’ve just said goodbye to our most recent school exchange students, a group of fantastic students

from the well-known Colegio Orvalle in Madrid. It’s the second such exchange we’ve hosted this

year, with students from Colege Stanislas in Paris having visited several weeks ago.

In recent years, a combination of the increasing (and of course, necessary) safeguarding rules and

Covid restrictions have seen many schools stop their exchanges.

Here at The Laurels, however, we feel that language and cultural exchanges are an exciting

opportunity for our students. As one of our girls commented after her trip to Paris, she had been

daunted beforehand by the prospect of having to express herself in a foreign language, but returned

to London bolstered by how well she had coped – and she now plans to spend the summer holidays

in France to continue her language learning.

ChatGPT and the like may make communicating something achievable at the touch of a button, but

this is to miss the point of language and exchange trips. Finding the words to help someone

understand how we feel, realising that we can find the ‘mot juste’ from our initially limited

vocabulary, and reaching an appreciation of what we have in common are all powerful learning tools

for our students.

Enabling our students to challenge themselves is another benefit of going beyond their comfort

zone. We believe it’s a contributory factor to how they approach all aspects of their learning. Our

recent ISI ‘Excellent’ report commented that ‘the development of pupils’ self-confidence and self-

esteem is excellent’.

We're delighted that we will soon be able to re-introduce our VI Form exchange to Boston in the

US - look out for more details.