Up next in 10
We've heard from the staff at Xabia International College in previous weeks...today it's the Petch family's turn. We find out from Helen, David, Sadie and Ella how that few months of distance learning went, and just how "challenging" it was for the parents. There's also talk of skipping PE lessons 😉, beach rugby, Minecraft...oh and the amazing new secondary school due to open in September.
To find out more about the school visit https://xic.college and be sure to Subscribe to our YouTube channel and ring the Notifications 🛎 for the latest from BayRadio.
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0:00
this is bay radio so as i say catching
0:04
up with uh some folk involved with
0:06
javier international college
0:07
the family's turn this week now i met up
0:09
with uh richard wijaratni mr widge
0:12
head of the school um it was last week
0:14
and he said well we've got a family for
0:16
you this week
0:16
and i there was a bit of a
0:18
misunderstanding it was it may have been
0:19
a
0:19
loud car passing or something i'm sure
0:21
he said it's a dutch family coming in
0:23
i said well that's fine as long as they
0:24
speak good english it was the patch
0:26
family of course good morning everyone
0:28
good morning and welcome along and one
0:30
well once i started talking to you i
0:32
could tell
0:32
even though our dutch friends speak in
0:34
perfect english um
0:36
you're out of the northeast by the
0:37
sounds of things so the northeast of
0:38
england right
0:39
yes i'm i'm from the north east of
0:41
england and i'm from the north
0:43
uh lake district how are you oh okay
0:45
well welcome along um
0:46
so helen david sadie and ella
0:50
um mercedes on the air the headset mike
0:52
there i'm gonna be very important we'll
0:54
talk in just a moment
0:55
what i usually do is when there are folk
0:57
in uh expats if you like
0:59
how long in spain and why who wants to
1:01
answer that
1:02
well i'll start with that thanks um we
1:05
came to spain at the end of august
1:07
last year we've been thinking about this
1:10
for
1:10
many many years i wanted to move to
1:12
spain much earlier when the children
1:13
were smaller
1:15
but then earlier last year we decided
1:17
that we're going to give it a year
1:18
so we set everything up we entered the
1:20
xic school went to other schools around
1:22
the area
1:23
we settled on xic because we thought it
1:26
was just a fantastic family atmosphere
1:28
and we moved into an apartment at the
1:30
end of august and we're there
1:32
now and we've decided that we liked
1:35
spain so much in this area
1:37
that we've bought our own house and
1:39
we've got the keys and we're moving in
1:41
this week and well it's been an
1:43
interesting uh first year
1:44
here in spain then with obviously what's
1:47
happened in the first half of the year
1:48
now we've talked to the staff about how
1:51
the sort of lockdown period went
1:52
um so you was a family how did it shape
1:55
up i mean it was pretty
1:56
sudden obviously for us it was quite a
1:58
difficult time because my husband
2:00
david um he works offshore and he was in
2:04
saudi arabia at the time
2:07
and it was he was due back in um about a
2:10
week
2:11
and it ended up where saudi was went
2:13
into complete lockdown you couldn't
2:15
you couldn't get out all the airports
2:17
were closed all the
2:18
ports were closed so david ended up in
2:21
um
2:22
saudi for three months whereas usually
2:24
he
2:25
works six weeks and then comes home so
2:28
for us that was quite difficult because
2:30
in the uk i've always lived
2:32
close to either my family or david's
2:34
family so they've
2:36
supported me when david was away with
2:38
the girls and things
2:40
and this time it was just just myself um
2:43
but i do have an excellent group of
2:46
friends who
2:47
stayed in touch with me throughout and
2:49
offered support
2:50
and encouragement which
2:53
was brilliant really but and we spoke
2:57
um daily to david trying to find out
2:59
obviously when he when he
3:01
would be able to come back i was worried
3:03
he wouldn't get back into spain with
3:05
being
3:06
obviously being a british national but
3:08
it all worked out in the end and
3:10
after three months he eventually got
3:13
back
3:13
yeah because you probably didn't have
3:15
residency sorted and all that sort of
3:16
thing by then i did that early on
3:18
no when i left uh javier in early
3:20
february to go to sea
3:22
um a week before i was due to come home
3:24
that's when the lockdown happened
3:26
and yes my wife we were talking quite
3:29
often and she was asking when are you
3:31
coming home when you're coming
3:32
home and i couldn't answer because saudi
3:34
kept changing their goal posts as well
3:36
they kept delaying people coming in
3:37
delaying people going out
3:39
and there was no plans that we couldn't
3:40
make any plans at all
3:42
david hasn't got residency but me and
3:44
the girls have right
3:45
because david works obviously offshore
3:47
so he's in and out of the country
3:50
um but we do have and david was able to
3:53
to come to come back into spain i think
3:56
on the back of that we have he had our
3:58
copies of our residency card
4:00
right he had official letter from his
4:02
company obviously to say
4:04
you know the nature of his work and what
4:06
have you and a rental agreement which
4:07
has
4:08
both of our names on and that that was
4:11
enough to get him back
4:12
so you'd been i suppose long enough to
4:14
have had things like internet in place
4:15
and that's something so once
4:17
you know the home schooling started you
4:18
were okay with that side of things yes
4:21
perfectly okay i mean the girls we each
4:22
had a um
4:24
an ipad anywhere from from this from
4:26
school
4:27
which is what was set up to do all of
4:28
their their schoolwork but we've got
4:30
um laptops and things at home as well so
4:33
that the technology sort of side of it
4:35
wasn't a
4:36
was not an issue because of the fact
4:38
that the ipads were already set up and
4:40
they use the ipads in school they know
4:41
the system
4:42
already so it was just a case of
4:43
transferring that system into
4:45
into the house really yeah um so what
4:48
was going on
4:49
in the house at the time do you mean do
4:50
you work do you have to go out during
4:51
the day i don't work
4:53
um i don't work here so i was able to
4:55
stay
4:57
in her in the house um all of the time
4:59
um
5:00
and uh monitor the the girls obviously
5:03
on the ipads but to be fair
5:05
um not to sing their praises or to sign
5:08
their praises
5:08
these girls were brilliant and they just
5:10
got on with the work you know what i had
5:12
because we live in an apartment at the
5:13
moment so
5:14
sadie was in the sitting room ella was
5:16
in her bedroom
5:18
uh just so obviously to to to so it
5:21
wasn't uh
5:22
they don't didn't distract each other if
5:23
you know because series and secondary l
5:25
is in
5:26
primary obviously it's a different
5:28
they're doing very different
5:29
different things um but they just got on
5:32
i had no absolutely no
5:33
issue they get up get on and that was it
5:36
it was it wasn't a problem at all
5:37
yeah i can kind of tell from uh just
5:39
sort of meeting the two girls
5:41
behaving and playing along with all of
5:43
that so what was it like um sadie just a
5:45
real
5:45
change obviously of routine but you soon
5:47
adapted to it did you
5:49
getting out did you sort of properly get
5:50
up and about and get dressed and
5:52
you know do the whole thing if i'm being
5:54
honest i got up got dressed
5:56
at the right time but i got up but i
5:58
didn't
5:59
get changed out of my pajamas i just did
6:01
homeschool in my pajamas well that's all
6:03
right i'm sure you weren't the only one
6:05
who was doing that i think everybody was
6:06
in the pajamas
6:08
but it's i was saying to the teachers
6:10
and it's quite a good
6:11
it's quite good sort of discipline um
6:13
because people working from home is a
6:15
real
6:16
it's an issue for some people because
6:17
you can't there's so many distractions
6:18
and it's you know and it's easy to
6:20
particularly if the work comes in and
6:22
it's not the set
6:23
did you start out with like this this
6:26
class starts at this time or did you
6:27
have work come in
6:28
and say just get this finished by
6:30
whenever for the first week it was like
6:32
that
6:33
and then we the second week and then the
6:36
rest of it we started doing
6:38
set times and on the google meet where
6:39
we actually had to see
6:41
uh our teachers for the full hour so we
6:45
it was like that we um sort of half
6:47
joked about it but
6:48
um the pe side of things did you do
6:50
anything did you join in with any of the
6:52
online bits
6:53
um my farm tutor miss batson she was
6:57
uh she was making like every lunch time
7:00
maybe i think it was on a tuesday or
7:02
thursday and you could join google
7:04
meeting they would do
7:05
fitness and exercise and some people did
7:08
that
7:08
but i was just i wanted to have my
7:10
launch fair play
7:12
yeah i think i'd been right with you
7:13
there it all settled in
7:16
relatively well though didn't it i mean
7:18
considering how soon they had to get it
7:20
into place and
7:21
how did you see it helen i thought it
7:23
was um absolutely brilliant i mean i'm
7:26
in the uk i worked as a as a teacher in
7:29
secondary and primary schools anyway and
7:32
i was incredibly um
7:33
impressed um i listened into some of the
7:37
you know the what was happening in the
7:39
classroom and it was
7:40
brilliant both these girls were
7:41
interested engaged
7:44
and it was pretty much like them
7:47
being at school except they were
7:50
obviously
7:50
you know in in in the uh in our house
7:54
but um it and it gave for all of us to
7:57
give
7:58
us like structure to the day you know
8:00
like if there was a routine we had a
8:01
reason to get up
8:02
um there was something to do all day
8:04
because sadie and ella
8:06
like many children all over javier were
8:08
not
8:09
allowed out the house at all no they
8:11
couldn't go out on this they couldn't go
8:12
out on the street so
8:14
for them both it gave them something
8:16
like to do
8:17
um that was constructive to fill that
8:19
time
8:20
um so it was i thought it was amazing
8:22
really you know
8:23
i really i really did as a parent as
8:26
well because it took
8:27
all um the stress of us
8:30
you know i've got friends in in um
8:33
the uk that have really been very
8:36
stressful trying to teach their children
8:38
over the last uh two or three months on
8:41
like you know
8:41
this worksheet sent and they've got to
8:43
try and they've got try and
8:44
teach the children we had none of that
8:46
it was like it was all handed over to
8:48
xic and they did a i thought an
8:50
absolutely brilliant job i couldn't
8:52
fault it what about the
8:53
the sort of social side uh say sadie um
8:56
you miss your friends or are you used to
8:58
spending a bit of time online so you
9:00
you i suppose these days you would have
9:02
been a bit more used to that than they
9:04
would have been maybe 30 years ago
9:05
because you chat with your friends
9:06
online anyway
9:07
yeah me my friends were all very close
9:10
um and
9:10
we were just facetiming each other all
9:13
the time so
9:14
when we actually finally met in person
9:16
we didn't know what to say because we
9:17
already told each other
9:19
everything that was going on yeah we
9:21
couldn't see each other yeah
9:22
it was very weird seeing them obviously
9:24
we're in the school holidays now
9:26
and your first full year here
9:29
um a little bit easier to uh keep the
9:31
kids entertained during the school
9:32
holidays here and then you go and play
9:34
in the pool and we'll uh we'll be right
9:36
here yes uh both both my daughters um
9:39
love being outside they did in the uk as
9:41
well um
9:42
so we spend a lot of time by the pool
9:44
and down down by the beach
9:46
um because we're from the north of
9:49
england we found
9:50
in the uk basically from the end of
9:52
september probably right the way through
9:54
till march
9:55
we didn't even go in the garden it was
9:57
it was it's so cold and wetting
9:59
so this is this is absolutely brilliant
10:01
i mean my daughter sadie
10:03
um plays rugby and she can play rugby on
10:05
the beach
10:06
oh yeah they do that don't they yeah i
10:07
mean we can sort of stand and we're not
10:09
like
10:09
freezing freeze freezing to death like
10:12
we would be at home
10:14
well that's yeah that's the thing isn't
10:15
it when um with parents in the uk when
10:17
they got
10:18
uh watching from the sidelines on a
10:19
sunday morning in january
10:22
and playing football uh but uh yeah so
10:24
when you play rugby sadie that's
10:26
interesting
10:27
that's obviously been on hold for a bit
10:29
hasn't it with the
10:30
close contact thing but any news on that
10:32
coming back well
10:34
it did come back we had it on wednesday
10:37
and thursday for like a month or two all
10:39
right
10:39
yeah and then there's this new rule
10:41
coming out that any contact games can't
10:43
play
10:44
um but so we've had to stop
10:48
beach rugby so that's kind of sad
10:50
because other sports get to play and
10:52
like they don't they they get to have
10:56
like contact too so it's
10:57
it's not very fair should we talk to her
10:59
let's get eller on go on she's hiding
11:01
away there
11:01
might just get you in shop by the way
11:02
we're filming this we'll put this up on
11:04
youtube haven't got the screen up this
11:06
week between us because there's
11:07
enough distance i've sprayed everything
11:09
and what do you find to do then
11:11
well um since got alexa
11:14
and um for her birthday in england i
11:17
used
11:18
a lot to play music and dance too and i
11:21
also
11:21
like playing outside in the pool and
11:24
and the beach and the beach
11:28
and like playing video games too so
11:30
you're in
11:31
primary still yeah okay how long till
11:34
you move to
11:35
the big school um
11:39
two years okay well you'll have a bit
11:41
more room because the way this is
11:42
working as we know the new
11:44
secondary school is opening up for
11:46
excise c so sadie that'll be you
11:48
in there from september all being well
11:50
do we we know it's opening september
11:52
here um that's what they say yeah
11:54
okay have you seen it yeah all right
11:56
we've been to the building itself or
11:58
seen photos
11:59
seen well i've been to the building
12:00
myself but not past the
12:02
barrier right but it's it's coming on
12:04
very well
12:05
like the buildings are up so that's good
12:09
yeah it sounds impressive i mean they
12:11
put a lot of work into there even down
12:13
to the whole design of the place
12:15
the design looks very impressive they've
12:17
thought about pretty much everything
12:19
yeah the the flow of it was it was
12:21
discussed too with mr witch they've got
12:23
one of those uh folk that's um earn
12:25
their money these days by you know
12:27
designing the way the way you flow
12:29
through a building a bit of feng shui in
12:31
there i'm sure
12:32
yeah but it's important it's a thing and
12:35
you'll do all right technology wise as
12:36
well i think by the sounds of it yeah
12:38
everything in place there yeah the
12:41
school already provides us tablets so
12:43
yes we'll probably just take them to the
12:46
new school
12:47
but there'll be a lot more facilities
12:50
you're a little bit restricted where you
12:51
are at the moment
12:52
um for space and that sort of thing so
12:54
that'll open up
12:55
a lot more for you um and i think i'm
12:58
right in saying there's
12:59
uh the sort of playing area there's the
13:01
outside area where you'd be able to do
13:03
your sports
13:03
rather than going off off campus as it
13:05
were we have to take the bus so we used
13:07
to have to walk
13:08
to the nearest uh like open the space
13:11
but here we have a running truck and we
13:12
have three tennis courts that
13:14
we're going to be able to play
13:15
volleyball hockey football basketball
13:18
with so there's going to be a lot of
13:20
space
13:21
mm-hmm and from what i gather then ella
13:24
where the secondary school is now
13:26
that'll be you'll be able to go in there
13:28
so you'll have a bit more room to
13:30
um well is that right well the younger
13:32
ones are going into their like um
13:34
so we'll have more room in the the
13:37
primary school to to expand things and
13:41
stuff
13:41
i think the um the infants you know like
13:44
it's a
13:45
foundation reception one and two are in
13:48
the
13:49
in the um now secondary school right and
13:52
then the juniors
13:53
from year three up to year six will be
13:56
in the current primary school that
13:57
that's what i i thought i'm not
13:59
i i got a little bit yes i knew there
14:01
was mention of obviously making use of
14:03
the space where the secondary school is
14:04
now
14:05
um and the older folk move up to this to
14:07
the other school have you seen it
14:08
we've we've drove past it a few times
14:10
because we were just like uh
14:12
curious as to see when it would be you
14:14
know how it's getting on if it'll and if
14:16
it will be
14:17
at all finished uh in time for um
14:20
sadie going there in september well uh
14:22
girls good luck with next turn thank you
14:24
all right in your new school and uh
14:26
maybe uh catch up with you again soon uh
14:28
pop in any time
14:29
i just i i never have more friends at
14:31
this time of year with that
14:32
air conditioning unit let's just pop in
14:35
for the
14:36
the vaguest of reasons just to say hello
14:38
but uh now it's good to catch up with
14:39
you and good to hear that um
14:40
things went all right during the
14:42
lockdown period yes
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