Exchange visits of students with a foreign school mean education possibilities that should be valued highly positively. They do indeed mean work and effort for the teaching staff involved in them, but life at the school is enriched by the group of foreigners, who are given the same subjects and disciplines, subject to the same teaching timetable, as our own students during their stay here and the same thing occurs when our groups travel to foreign schools.

Opening up our school to other countries is instructive not only for the students taking part in schemes but also for others and for the teaching staff. We all learn from each other, realising the things that we have in common and our differences with people from other countries. We learn to value the good things we have and respect other people’s lifestyle.

For this reason, after several years’ experience with exchange visits with Sweden, Belgium, Italy etc., the presence of our centre is already a tradition at all the European venues where experiences of this type can be exchanged.

Until now the experience has always been approached with higher secondary school students. The vehicle language for exchange visits, regardless of nationality, is always English or French.

Our most recent experiences have been the ones with the following institutes:

• Lyceum “O.–L.-Vr.–ter-Nieuwe-Plant” de la ciudad de Ieper en Bélgica. http://users.pandora.be/lyceum/
  
• Fria Gymnasieskolan I Häninge de la ciudad de Estocolmo en Suecia. http://www.friagymnasieskolan.se/
  
• Instituto Magistrale Statale Giovanni Pascoli de la ciudad de Florencia en Italia http://digilander.libero.it/giovannipascoli/giovannipascoli.htm