Students from Rouen staying with students from King Alfred’s Academy planned a “French Day” for Charlton’s pupils and then led various fun activities on this theme throughout the day, encouraging and helping the pupils to learn some French whilst finding out more about the country and its culture. To round off the day, the Charlton pupils presented their songs and dances at an assembly, and the French visitors presented prizes to the winners of each of the day’s activities.
The students were from the Lycée Gustave Flaubert in Rouen, which the King Alfred’s students will visit on the return leg of the exchange.
The day started with a typical French breakfast – croissants and hot chocolate – with the children practising ordering their breakfast from the French “student waiters” in a café situation. Later sessions involved making models of famous Parisian monuments from marshmallows, toothpicks and spaghetti; joining in with French songs and dances and a quiz on French culture in the style of “Who Wants to be a Millionaire”.
Sophie Loyer, King Alfred’s Head of French, said “As far as I know we are breaking new ground with this initiative as this has never been done before. The day went very well; the French students were really enthusiastic and this transferred to the children who really enjoyed it and got a lot of learning out of the experience.” Sophie added “We are hugely grateful to the staff at Charlton Primary School who went out of their way to make all this possible. We would also like to thank Sainsbury’s of Wantage for their help with the breakfast items and donation towards the croissants.”
Erin Merola-Hobbs (8) commented on her French breakfast, saying “This has been really fun. We met French people and ate French food – the hot chocolate was really nice”. Riley Ward (9) added “I learnt lots of new French words about food and really enjoyed my croissant”.