French Christmas Markets
On Thursday 15 to Sunday 18 December we went to France to experience the wonderful French Christmas markets and to help develop our French speaking skills. The trip was for French GCSE students in Years 10 and 11.
German Trip the Goethe-Institut
A group of 24 German students from Years 9 and 10 recently travelled into London to visit the Goethe-Institut. Located in South Kensington and surrounded by a range of cultural sights, the institute is the central hub of German language and culture in the UK. During our visit, students took part in a German escape room (Fluchtraum), using tablets with augmented reality to scan for clues. Working in teams, they solved puzzles in German to find codes for various combination locks, with the aim of tracking down and catching a German hacker. Miss Roderick and I, as well as the staff working at the institute, were impressed with their understanding of German and their problem-solving skills. All students received some (vegan) Gummibärchen for their efforts and some German badges too. Despite train delays, our students remained positive and enthusiastic and we had a great day out!
Mr Bowman, MFL
Le Touquet
Early on Monday 7 October, a large group of Year 9 French students got on a coach and drove to France for 5 days. On our first day we visited Boulogne, the fabulous gardens and walked down to Nausicaá sea life centre. We then travelled to our hotel, L’Hippôtel in Le Touquet. On day two we went to a fish market followed by an explore around the market in Étaples, which was very traditional. Later on we went swimming and enjoyed lots of lovely French food at our hotel. During our stay we also had the opportunity to visit Vimy Ridge and actually went into a real trench (the visitors centre was also very interesting) followed by the
Canadian War Memorial. In Arras we went into Les Boves (the underground tunnels used for lots of different reasons over the years) and shopped for the most delicious cakes! The town of Le Touquet was quiet at this time of year, but very pretty, and we enjoyed the most amazing crêpes after doing our town trail and having our packed lunches on the beach. We also had a talk from L’Escargotier, where he talked us through why snails are so important to French culture. We also go to eat them which was a unique experience too. That afternoon we had an adventure in the trees at Opalaventure which was so much fun. On our final day. Bruno the Boulanger talked to us about his traditional way of bread-making and afterwards we had an enormous pain au chocolat! A lot of eating took place and everyone enjoyed it! Thanks to Miss Roderick and Mrs Dixon for organising the trip and to Mrs Madsen and Mrs de Graaf for accompanying us; Scott the coach driver was totally awesome too!
William Gilbank, Year 9, BBC reporter