PARLI ITALIANO?

This time of the year we all like to look back at what we've done so far and sort of make a recap of everything. Well, so did we! One of the amazing things our school had going on was a week's exchange visit from some pupils and teachers from an Italian school! They spent some time in our school, hosted by our formidable Year 6 and their from teacher Ms Lisica, and also travelled through Zagreb and Croatia to do some sightseeing. Once they left, we asked them to look back at their experience and share some insights with us. Thank you to our Italian friends and their teachers - Axel, Francesco, Giulia, Chiara...

Here is what we asked them and below you can see what they had to say!

BRIGHT ZONE QUESTIONS FOR THE ITALIAN VISITORS - TEACHERS AND THE CHILDREN:

1. Tell us something about your school and your city.

2. What were you hoping to experience in Croatia and did the visit meet your expectations?

3. How different is our school to yours and what are the similarities?

4. When you had some free time, what did you do? Did you do any sightseeing or go on a field trip?

5. What was the most challenging thing about your trip?

6. What will you remember from our school when you go back to Italy?

Feel free to add anything special that you would also like us to mention if you wish. Thank you.

1. My school is large and much more advanced in English than others in this country. In my school there are two recesses and six hours of study, we can choose whether to have lunch there or not and whether to do afternoon work or not. The food in the canteen is different and usually there is pasta, meat, vegetables and bread. My city is small, hilly, green, colourful and quiet.

2. I was hoping to find a warmer climate, crowded streets, shops different from ours, classes the same as ours... Yes, Croatia met my expectations and surprised me because it is a beautiful place.

3. The differences are the classes, the language, the food, the learning, the playground, the park and the canteen. The school subjects are similar.

4. When I had free time I went to eat some snack. Yes, I went on many school trips and this one to

   Croatia was the best.

5. The best trip was when we went to see a lake and there were lots of swans, one came up to us on the beach and we gave him a biscuit.

6. I will remember the moments when I was there with you and I will remember the game we played in the gym and the park.

   (Aurora)

1) Our school is located in Santa Maria degli Angeli, known for its religion and San Francesco. At this time, all the middle schools in our school are preparing a show that will that will be presented in December.

2) I underestimated Croatia, and in the end it exceeded my expectations - I really liked it.

3) The differences between our schools are that our grades are from 1 to 10 and not 1 to 5, we have two snacks and they last longer and lunch consists of more things.

4) In our free time we visited the city and went shopping around the town.

5) The most challenging thing we did was take the buses because there was a constant change of transport.

6) The thing I will remember about your school is that before lunch we played football because it was very fun.

(Francesco)

1. Our city is Santa Maria, a little but very beautiful city of Umbria. Here there’s a lot of nature and it’s usually cold only in the early morning and, if it doesn’t rain, it’s hot. In this city there is also a very important church and there comes a lot of people from around the world to visit it. Our school it’s an international school and it’s name is Assisi International School, all the people is welcoming and it’s a relaxing place, where all the students have fun all together.

2. My experience in Croatia met all my expectations because all I wanted was that the school was clean, the people welcoming and have fun in a beautiful city. All these expectations were reached, so I was happy about it

3. Our schools are similar, but not all. They are international schools and children can lunch there and do extra time. Also, in the break time, we can have fun in the garden. The differences are that at our school we speak Italian and a little bit of English, but only during the lessons.

4. When we had free time, we had fun, in the afternoon we did sightseeing and in the evening we had some party all together. We had a lot of fun!

5. The most challenging thing about our trip was, after going to sleep at 2:00 a.m., getting up at 6:00! But, after, it all went normal and we had a lot of fun!

6. I will remember our time spent in class and my new friends, like Sara or Elena! But also when, in the break time, my friends and I played in the garden, especially on the little bridge with pegs. We had a lot of beautiful time there, I’ ve never had so much fun like there! (Please, say hello from me to Sara and Elena!!!)

(Chiara)

1. I like the Zagreb International school because the classmates all speak English, and also because all the students were kind and I found some f1riends immediately. Your school is different from ours; the lunch it’s different, for the food, for the time that we have to eat, and also for the size of the canteen. It’s different also for the lessons, because we don’t have a small break every 45 minutes , but two break times of 15 minutes. Also our school is International, but we don’t speak English all the time, but only in English lessons. My city is small, colourful and it’s famous for Saint Francis, a saint that is know for his love and relationship with the animals.

2. I didn’t hope anything of the experience in Croatia, but I didn’t think that the city would be so beautiful and welcoming, so what I saw in this trip was better than I thought. it would be.

3. For me our school it’s very different to the yours, but the similarities are that we work in groups, that it’s a International school and that we have others works after school.

4. We visited Zagreb, the monuments, the square... But we also went out of Zagreb, like the waterfall in Plitvice Park, that was very beautiful! When we were walking around Zagreb, we tried some bar when we drank hot chocolates. And we also visit museum like the Tesla museum or the illusion museum, and it was very fun!

5. For me the most challenging thing was to wake up at 6 and catch like 3 or 4 buses to move around the city, because in Italy we don’t use that and we don’t need a lot to use buses because to move around the city we have cars, so for us it was a new thing.

6. I will remember all the people in there, like the students and the teachers, I’ll remember the days that I spent speaking only English with my new friends, and I’ll remember the whole experience in general!

And now what? How does this story of friendship end? Well. we are hoping that it doesn't end, because we are keeping our fingers crossed for our exchange visit! Dear Italian friends, we miss you and we hope to see you again soon, whether in Italy or Croatia! Have a great 2026!

Here are just a few photos from our first day together! The lion mosaic is still on our school wall. We made it together and we are keeping it as a reminder of your visit.