News of young people
Our first prize-winner for the most improved pupil
On 29 June 2010, Sophie Farrell became the first winner of the BTA Prize for most improvement in a modern foreign language at The Royal Latin School. The prize was presented by John Bercow MP and Speaker of the House of Commons in front of a packed audience of parents and dignitaries. Pictured here with her proud parents, Joe and Jill Farrell after the ceremony, Sophie is a keen student of both French and German.
Our latest prize-winner
The BTA award for the most improved pupil who is studying modern languages at a local school was presented to Liam Saunders at The Buckingham Secondary School in September. We congratulate him on this achievement.
Ben and Stephanie in Mouvaux
My girlfriend and I have now returned from a four week’s stay in Mouvaux, done with the aim of improving our French and learning a little more about
the French way of life and culture. We were grateful to enjoy the hospitality of the Dubus and Champault families in Mouvaux.
I have lived in Buckingham for the last 17 years. I completed my studies at Oxford University along with Stephanie, my girlfriend, back in June last year,
and we are currently undertaking what the French term an “année sabatique” (which I think sounds a little more industrious than the English “GAP year”).
We had both done French at A-level several years ago and Steph had studied it for one year at university but both of us felt that we would benefit
from being able to actually use the language day to day.
We managed to pack in quite a lot in just a month! Our week was taken up with acting as volunteer English assistants / teachers at three local primary
schools (I hope the residents of Mouvaux don’t blame us for the level of English in years to come)! This was a great experience as Steph and I have both
worked with children before but never in an academic context. The ages we taught ranged from CM2 (10 years old – the final year of “école primaire”)
right down to PS or “Petite Section” (some as young as 2 years old). Obviously within such a wide age bracket we had to alter our teaching style
to suit the situation. With the very little ones we didn’t progress much further than “Hello”, “Good Bye” and “My name is...” (including a very
amusing lesson where the whole class continually repeated “My name is Ben” despite being instructed to use their own names.)
With the older children we progressed on to more complicated introductions and questions about themselves and others,
and even team games using words such as “under”, “over” and “next to” where they had to place themselves in the position described.
Songs were also very popular with “Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes” being a firm favourite across all classes.
Living with a family was a great experience and really immersed us in the language as the kids did not speak much English and the parents
obviously spoke to them in French as well. Our knowledge of French for family life is vastly improved and we can both confidently communicate
to someone to “hurry up”, “take off your shoes”, or “stop doing XYZ”! We were very lucky in finding two kind, welcoming families (in both cases
one of the children gave up their bedroom to us) who helped us immensely with our French; I hope we were able to give something back to them and
it was rewarding to see the kids progressing as our conversations over the breakfast table became more advanced.
We were also able to use some of
the time at the weekends to explore places nearby and we visited Lille on several occasions; however we’ll definitely return in the summer as
it was really too cold to enjoy strolling in the parks and around the shops! We visited Paris one weekend with one of the families and enjoyed
a bit of sightseeing there too. Back in Mouvaux we had the chance to meet the mayor and others involved in the twinning project. It was nice to
see that the link between the two towns is a strong one and set to continue well into the future.
Our stay was immensely enjoyable and rewarding. It was in no small part due to the active nature of the Twinning Association and I hope that
it demonstrates that being twinned offers a variety of possibilities – I know that both the families we stayed with would be interested
in doing exchanges with families in Buckingham that have children of a similar age.
Ben Ogden
21.02.09
Possible exchanges
We have had two specific requests to host young people in the Buckingham area. Details are as follows. Please contact the French family direct.
- Pierre Champault is aged 11 years. He plays volleyball,is a scout and collects model soldiers. Ben Ogden (see above) stayed with his family for a month and he describes Pierre as polite, mature and very helpful. His family are looking fior a contacrt with an English family in the Buckingham area with a boy of similar age. The details would be worked out later. Contact ghislain.champault@sfr.fr
- Hugo Ivanow is aged 15 years. He is very keen on sport, especially football. He speaks good English and is looking to stay for 2-3 weeks as a paying guest or as an exchange arrangement at the beginning of July or the end of August. Contact: martine.ivanow@wandadoo.fr
There is a strong demand from Mouvaux for extended stays in England and for professional placements (eg Au pair jobs).
Any offers? - please ring Valerie on 01280 812547.
Pen Friends
We have been asked to find pen-friends - to communicate by letter or email. We would like this to grow into family exchanges but we have experienced reluctance from people to commit themselves in this way.
Some ideas that are being considered are:
- A fiches d'identite project to be done as a class project on each side of the Channel
- Use the Civic Visit as a "primer"
- Arrange pen-links with two particular primary schools.
School links
We are pleased to announce that the following school links are in existence:
- Ecole Jeanne d'Arc with Buckingham Primary School
- Ecole Victor Hugo with Steeple Claydon School
- Ecole St Francois with Bourton Meadow School
- Ecole Sacre Coeur with Bourton Meadow School
- Collège van der Meersch with the Royal Latin School
- Lycée Gambetta, Tourcoing (which serves Mouvaux pupils 15-18 years old) with the Royal Latin School
Bourton Meadow School report that their year 4 children (8-9 years old) have been learning about the home fron in World War II. As part of this they sent to Mouvaux:
- A copy of a story written in French about a little boy's experiences of evacuation
- Some pictures of some food accompanied by statements in French about whether they would have had that sort of food on the home front during the War.
Steeple Claydon School have received a bundle of letters from Ecole Victor Hugo and the pupils are now writing their replies.
We attended the Buckingham Primary School Fair on 22 May 2010. Free croissants were handed out from a stall promoting the Association whilst nearby Steve and Sue's large garden chess set drew much appreciative attention. Many leaflets were handed out and await the surge of new interest from those who took them.
University of Buckingham
The University of Buckingham (see the Links page for details of the University) offers the following possibilities:
- A 9 week course over 1 term (fee charged).
- A job within the University for a suitable applicant
- A "work experience" engagement of 1 week.
GCS/11.10.11