La Francophonie
We celebrated La Francophonie again this year.
La Francophonie is a celebration of the French speaking world and its culture.
French is the fifth most widely spoken language on the planet and the only one, together with English, to be spoken on five continents. French is the second business language of the European Area and the third global business language in the world.
With 29% of its vocabulary of French origin and 29% of Latin origin (French’s mother tongue), the English vocabulary of today has a rich legacy of about 80,000 words of French origin.
Between 21st-24th March, students took part in challenges and activities in order to mark this event so relevant to the English language including Francovision and The Great French Bake Off!
Francovision
Students from Year 3 to Year 9 took part in the fourth edition of Francovision. With stunning performances ranging from solos to group singing, from incredible dance routine to playing their own instrumental music.
Their peers then voted for the best performance and the pupils who got the first prize are going to represent our school in the Bellevue Francovision!
It was extremely difficult to chose our winners as every performance had its own unique flair and creativity, but our students were finally able to come to a decision on their favourite.
In the Prep School:
3rd place - Y4: Lucy, Abi, Liza, Holly and Natalie with ‘J’aime les fruits’
2nd place - Y6 : Kiki, Lorella, Alex, Kestrel, Krish and Zack with ‘Ramenez la coupe à la maison”
1st place - Y4: Ruben, Finn, Massimo, Adeiza and Sascha with ‘Au petit déjeuner’
In the Senior School:
3rd place - Y9: Poppy, Jem, Violet, Grace and Bhumija with ‘La bonne aventure’
2nd place - Y7: Esther, Aidefe, Matilda, Jeanie with ‘La Seine’
1st place - Y9: Alexandra with ‘La vie en rose’
You can view our winning Francovision performances on our Facebook page or by following this link:
Francovision Winners
The Great French Bake Off
We were very excited to welcome back The Great French Bake off for the third year running, with students from Reception to Year 9 whipping up some mouth-watering French cakes and bakes!
This year we had an impressive number of entries with students taking on the challenge of baking a recipe specific to a French-speaking country. Ranging from yummy crêpes to laborious crème brûlée, macarons and tarts, the students perfected their baking skills whist also trying out some new recipes.
Every entry looked delicious and it was very difficult to choose our winners. The bakes were based on presentation and the complexity of the recipe and we finally decided on our champions!
In the Pre-Prep School:
3rd place - Anenyasha, Y1
2nd place - Alexander, Y2
1st place - Levi and Aaron - Reception and Y2
In the Prep School
3rd place - Aymen, Y3
2nd place - Jenny, Y5
1st place - Duncan, Y5
In the Secondary School
3rd place - Thomas, Y8
2nd place - Lily, Y8
1st place - Eve, Y9
A special prize also went to Leyla Yr 8 for trying 2 French recipes
You can view our Great French Bake Off winners on our Facebook page or by following the link below:
The Great French Bake Off Winners
Not wanting to be left out many of our teachers also took part in a French Speaking competition! The challenge involved speaking French in some of their lessons, the students also enjoyed getting involved and showing off their impressive language skills! There was fierce competition between Mr Jolley, Ms Ellis, Mrs Willis, Mr Knapper, Mr Preston, Miss Avery and Mrs O'Dell. However in the end Mr Jeacock came first in the Junior School while in the Senior School it was Mr Troy.
Many congratulations to everyone who embraced any of the challenges and made the event feel extra special.
Mrs Irina Barratt
Modern Foreign Languages