News

2022 school year - C'est parti!

16 February 2022

The 2022 school year started on 8 February. La Grande Envolée welcomed new students and families to Year 7 and welcomed back the Year 8 students. There are now 17 students (with an 18th registered but currently out of the country) and the LGE students have their own full-time classroom, a larger space than they had last year.

LGE also welcomed Helen Parrott, an experienced Kōwhai teacher, who is teaching in English on Mondays and Tuesdays while Frédérique Abbott teaches in French Wednesdays to Fridays.

Individual Zoom meetings with each whānau will be taking place on 22 and 23 February.

Back to school!

24 November 2021

Students from La Grande Envolée, as well as other Kōwhai students, returned to school part time as Auckland transitions out of Covid-19 lockdown. Year 8 students, who are attending Mondays to Wednesdays, returned on 17 November and Year 7 students, who are attending Thursdays and Fridays, returned on 18 November.

Unfortunately, this has meant that the Year 7 and Year 8 students who together make up La Grande Envolée are unable to see each other in person. However, they continue to work with their LGE teacher Frédérique in French part time. Year 7 students are working with her online on Wednesdays and Year 8 students are working with her online on Fridays. Thursdays, Frédérique is in the Year 7 classroom co-teaching with Whaea Annie, the Year 7 English teacher.

In other news, it has been confirmed that ten new students will join La Grande Envolée as Year 7 students in 2022 while eight students move up to Year 8. That will make for a combined LGE class of 18 students, up from 11 in 2021. Welcome to the new students and families!

Grant from French embassy

27 April 2021

Kōwhai has received a grant of 5000 Euros from the French Embassy to support teaching and learning at La Grande Envolée. Specifically, the purpose is to work towards the Franc Education label by developing an assessment system for the bilingual curriculum that would highlight students' progress in their reading, comprehension, writing and oral communication. The money will be spent on French teaching materials and training.

A blurb about the proposal in French, as submitted to the embassy:

Pour accompagner Kowhai intermediate vers la labelisation Label Franc Education, Frenz et Kowhai Intermediate voudraient postuler pour un projet. Ce projet d'accompagnement se concentrerait sur la construction d'un système d'évaluation d'apprentissage du cursus bilingue au niveau Intermediate (pour élèves de 11, 12 et 13 ans).

Pour ce projet, nous proposons la création d'un système unique qui mettrait en avant, de façon explicite, la progression de l'élève en termes de lecture, compréhension, écriture et expression orale. Pour ce projet, nous avons besoin d'explorer plusieurs options comme l'achat de manuels pédagogiques français de 6eme et 5eme (collège), de suivre une formation orientée sur l'enseignement bilingue et d'une formation DELF en partenariat avec l'Alliance Française d'Auckland.

New Name: La grande envolée

30 March 2021

Kōwhai’s French-English bilingual unit has a name! La Grande Envolée, chosen by the inaugural 11 students in consultation with teacher Frédérique Abbott, means The Great Flight, which evokes Kōwhai’s mission to “Fly Further Together.”