French Students' Visit to The Leigh

L’ensemble scolaire Jean Bosco de Guînes visit The Leigh Academy!

Wednesday 5th June was an exciting day for The Leigh Academy as we had a visit from 45 students and 5 staff from our French partner school. The group arrived at 08:30 following an early morning departure from France. Students and teachers were welcomed by an enthusiastic group of Leigh students and Mrs Collins, our Principal. Harry a  year 10 student, gave an excellent talk about life at our academy then the students were put into groups where they had five minutes to ask each other questions to find out more about each other. The French students were encouraged to ask the questions in English and answer in English, whilst the English students were encouraged to ask the questions in French and answer in French. After five minutes the groups of English students rotated to talk to a different group of French students. This was an excellent ice breaker experience and gave all students the opportunity to get to know each other and to practise their language skills. The Leigh students were particularly keen to talk in French to “real life French people!!”

After this session the students were put into groups. 24 French students, assisted by 8 Leigh students baked scones, whilst the rest of the group toured our school. The cooking experience went really well and the French enjoyed the flavour of our typically British cuisine. French teachers and students alike were very impressed with our school, they commented on our modern building, beautiful winter gardens and first class facilities.

After this the cooking group toured the school whilst the remaining French and English students played a game of rounders. The weather was amazing and all students had a lot of fun, whilst encouraging each other to score rounders and work well as a team. The French students enjoyed this new game that they had never played before.

Our French visitors left the school at midday and drove to London to visit the sights before returning home late that evening. Both English and French students and staff gained a lot from this experience. Madame Sylvie Bay, the French teacher who organised the trip, sent me a message of thanks later that day “Thank you so much, we had an extraordinary day, The students were delighted with the school and with the contact they had with your students, I know that they have already been exchanging a lot of messages with each other in the bus on the way home!”