This year, 18 of us from Upper 4 had the opportunity to visit another school in North America and have a girl from over there come and stay with us. However, due to the current pandemic we were unable to go. We were obviously very disappointed, but we were very excited and happy when Miss Strachan said that we would be taking part in a digital version of the exchange until we are able to travel again.  

There are four exchanges in total, to schools in Philadelphia, Texas and Toronto. Each exchange has a secure Padlet page meaning that everyone can stay in touch with their partner schools.

Although the digital exchange is new to everyone, it is very exciting. Our first activity was to post about our favourite rooms in our houses and it was really exciting to see part of the house that we will be staying in when we can travel again. This task was very fun, and it was good to get to know our exchange partners even more.

One of the things that we like about the digital exchange is that it is letting us get to know about the other exchangers in our group and not just our exchange partner. We didn’t think about this beforehand but when we travel, we will spend a lot of time with all the girls and not just our partner and so it is really cool that we can get to know them a little bit as well.

One of our tasks asked us to find a news article that wasn’t about COVID-19. Through this we learned about different things in the news like that JK Rowling wrote part of Harry Potter in a café in Edinburgh. We also learned fun things in the news in North America that our exchange partners shared with us. It is really good to learn about another country as that is one of the reasons we joined the exchange in the first place.

As well as learning about our exchange partners and the areas they are from, we have learnt how to use Padlet and improved our technical skills. We have also learned that even though things didn’t go as they were originally planned, we can still do activities as a group.

We have really enjoyed the digital exchange because it has meant we are still able to do something different and new – and it has stopped us getting bored in lockdown! We are looking forward to learning from our most recent task about the different healthcare in Edinburgh and North America. We are really happy that we can still connect with our partners and their schools and can’t wait for more.

Upper 4 Exchange Team