William Alvey School students on a French vacation
This week, 52 Year 5 and 6 children from the William Alvey School went to France on a trip they certainly won’t forget! It all started when Nici Fuller (William Alvey's French teacher) successfully gained a grant from the Turing fund to take 50 children to France (for FREE!) A year ago, Mrs Fuller started to plan this incredible visit to Marquette les Lille and our partner school.Literally writing on the bus during their return journey from France, Madame Fuller summarises the trip...
The trip was assessible to all children in Year 5 and 6 at the William Alvey school thanks to the funding we received. The children had to explain why they should be chosen, what they hoped to gain from the trip and how they would help promote French learning in school.
All of the children who applied were offered a place, in fact we ended up using 52! They also had extra language classes to prepare them for the trip.
During this week, we visited a French school several times. We spent some time in classes, made new friends and met up with some of the children who visited Sleaford last year. We had a mini Olympics with French children and played the very French game petanque. We were even treated to a musical performance by the school orchestra. It was great to watch the children playing football and teaching each other play ground games as they became more confident with each other.
The students tried lots of French food (and even liked some of it!). Each child went shopping to buy their own lunch and bought an ice-cream using their French.
They visited a zoo and a museum and had lots of opportunities to be immersed in French language and culture.
Students slept in a youth hostel in Lille but were generously hosted by Groupe Scolaire Van Hecke Cousteau and the Marquette les Lille twinning association. They gave us a crepe evening, a BBQ, lots of snacks and even a picnic for the trip home.
It has been wonderful to see all of the children grow in confidence personally, but also develop their French language skills. I was so proud of the children for being wonderful ambassadors for our school and country. The teachers that helped on the trip were also able to gain confidence in speaking French and set a great example for the children of having a go even when you don't understand everything!
It has been a brilliant experience that I really hope we are able to repeat.
Madame Fuller.