Over a late October weekend, professor Hamish Binns and nine students danced, played sports and conducted workshops with children at primary school Colegio Mireia Belmonte in Puertollano, Ciudad Real. “The school itself was once a place that parents would not voluntarily send their kids to if they did not have to,” Binns said.
Not only was the school underfunded, but since many students were from immigrant families, most were not native speakers of the school’s languages, English and Spanish.
However, the director advocated for greater funding and rebuilt the school to provide better education.
After these changes, the school won several awards for its curriculum. One such change was creating a big tree in the entrance of the school where the kids could write their academic wishes on a leaf. When the wish came true, the leaf would turn into an apple.
On one leaf a child wished to meet native English speakers, so the director reached out to Binns and since then he has annually taken students to Puertollano.
