Voyage à Francais

Date: 1st Apr 2017 @ 2:21pm

Mrs Cook and I had a fantastic trip to France last week.  It was a packed week of lessons, visits and cultural experiences.  Within our group there were teachers from 6 other primary schools from around the North West. It was great to get to know them and make links with schools from different areas.

We were in the beautiful city of Carcassonne in the south of France.  There are two parts to the city; Le cite which is the medieval city on the hill and the modern city where our hotel was although we visited Le Cite lots.

Friday Day 1: We arrived in a very wet and rainy Carcassonne!  We were taken to the hotel to drop our bags before being sent off on a treasure hunt around Le cite.  This meant we had to use our French to communicate with locals straight from the word go.  Unfortunately neither mine or Mrs Cooks team won although it was very close!

Saturday Day 2:  It was an early start to get to the language school next to Le Cite.  We spent the morning in a French lesson where, as you can imagine, very little English was spoken.  After being equipped with some new vocabulary we were sent out to gather pictures and resources for our presentations which we had to prepare for the end of the week.  You will never guess who we bumped into whilst we were there..Sunny!

Sunday Day 3: This was a preparation day ready for our visit to Ecole Fabre in Toulouse on Monday.  We learnt songs/games that we could use and were given some information about what to expect.  In the afternoon some of the group had to make their way to Toulouse to stay over night however Mrs Cook & I were getting the train in the morning so we were able to explore Carcassonne some more and speak to some of the locals.

Monday Day 4: After an early start we arrived in Toulouse and had the challenge of finding the school. After a couple of wrong turns we arrived to find the children doing their half hour morning run around the school yard.  We were both in CE2 classes which meant the children were 8 years old.  All of the staff were extremly welcoming and the children were keen to ask questions and find out about us.  We shared Meerkat Mail with the children and gave them postcards that year 1 had written.  One of the classes wrote postcards for us to bring back to Farndon. It was interesting to see how they taught and learn about the school system in France.  Their school day is from 8.30am - 4.00pm with activies/sports sessions at the start and end of the day.  This meant some children would be at school from 7.30am - 5.00pm each day.  After along but great day it was time for an early night!

Tuesday Day 5: It was back to the language school on Tuesday morning.  I had to share my experience from Monday completely in French! After lunch we were taught how to play Petanque, a local sport similar to boules.  It was good fun made better by the lovely weather.  We played alongside the locals in teams of 2 and of course I was in the winning pair! After, we were taken to a book shop to look at possible resources to enhance our teaching of French back in England.  That night we went to sample a traditional Carcassonne dish, Cassoulet.  It was packed full of duck, toulouse sausage, belly pork and beans.  It was delicious!

Wednesday Day 6: We had settled into our routine by now and were enjoying our morning walks across the old bridge towards Le Cite to the language school. It was a particularly beautiful day with the sun shining.  We were given an afternoon off so the group went to Lac de la Cavayère.  It is a man-made lake with small parts of beach surrounded by trees.  It was lovely soaking up the sun and playing a bit of petanque on the sand.

Thursday Day 7: Our final day at the language school.  In this session we learnt some French songs and actions to bring back to England.  Our teacher was particular impressed with our vocal ability suggesting we should start a choir! After lunch we had a session going through the National Curriculum and expectations for each year group.  We were also given more activities to support our teaching back at school.  During our final cultural activity we met a Countess of the region who is also an artist in Paris.

Friday Day 8: Before leaving the hotel we shared our presentations to the group and reflected on our week in France.  It was a fantastic experience and we were both grateful to have been given the opportunity.

Miss Schofield