In Week 4 we said “au revoir et bon courage” to Madame Whitford, wishing her well for her maternity leave, we can’t wait to meet her new baby! We have also said a big “bienvenue” to welcome Monsieur Heffernan, who is teaching Madame Whitford’s classes during her absence.
From March 12-20 we celebrated the international Semaine de la Francophonie here at St Edward’s, where students learnt about the 300 million speakers of French across 5 continents and over 29 different countries and cultures around the world. Some of our fabulous French students in Years 12, 10 and 8 made an entertaining video to advertise the events of the week, and it was pleasing to see so many boys getting into the spirit! We enjoyed croissants in the canteen all week; French-inspired games; and a special lunchtime screening of the film Ratatouille.
In the classroom, Year 8 students have been busy learning how to greet people in French, and answer questions relating to their name, age, and birthday. They have enjoyed practicing their new vocabulary in a variety of games and interactive activities. One such activity was the creation of a storyboard cartoon, where they designed the characters, setting, and wrote the script in French.
Year 9 students kicked off the year learning how to introduce themselves and talk about their families in French. Over the years, St Edward’s College has participated in an exchange program with a school in Montauban, in the south-west of France. The boys enthusiastically drew on their imagination and creativity to create and perform a role-play in which they imagined they were in Montauban on exchange, having a conversation with a local French student they had just met.
In celebration of International Francophonie Day, boys in Year 8 and 9 classes learnt about the broader French-speaking world, researched a French-speaking country of their choice, and proudly presented their work for their peers. They are becoming true global citizens.
Along the same vein of international travel, Year 10 have spent Term 1 learning about various famous landmarks around France and how to speak in French about leisure activities and holiday plans. They are currently writing a blog post about an imagined future holiday to Paris accompanied with their own itinerary of the places they would like to visit.
Throughout the first half of this term, Year 12 French Continuers have learnt how to discuss and present opinions in French about issues surrounding the media and new technologies, and how modern technology might influence the world in the future.
With the HSC looming on the increasingly not-too-distant horizon, the boys have started a new unit in which they are examining the experiences of French students in their final year of high school, drawing parallels with their own experiences studying for the HSC in Australia and using French to discuss their plans for their future after graduation.
This is designed to prepare students for the next unit on the world of work, where students will learn how to create a CV and participate in a job interview entirely in French – a very useful skill for future career possibilities in the modern world!
