OTLEY students have been enjoying practising their language skills abroad.

GCSE and A-level pupils from Prince Henry’s Grammar School got the chance to put their German and Spanish to the test during the February half-term holiday.

A total of nearly 40 students went on cultural exchanges to either the Spanish capital, Madrid, or Aachen, in Germany.

Living with local families, they also attended local schools and visited cultural highlights including the Prado Museum and Toledo in Spain, and the German museums of Cologne and Bonn.

Food tasting also featured heavily, with the students in Aachen popping over the Belgian border to visit the Lindt chocolate factory in Brussels, and the Spanish group enjoying the likes of tapas and churros.

Assistant headteacher and language college director at Prince Henry’s, Christopher Lillington, said: “Exchange trips are vital to help develop their language skills.

“While they are abroad they are encouraged to speak entirely in the language of the country they are visiting, and staying with local families really helps with this.

“The exchange trips build on our programme of cultural trips which begin in year seven and, as well as the language benefits, some students make strong friendships with their partners.”

Spanish and German students will soon be heading to Otley, meanwhile, to experience life at Prince Henry’s and visit local attractions like the National Coal Mining Museum, near Wakefield, and the World Heritage Site at Saltaire.