End of year report 2011/2012

The children have worked really hard on their French this term and the highlight for me was definitely the Prep 5 trip to the Château de la Baudonnière in Normandy, which took place at the beginning of June. Mr Jones, Mrs Martin and I took a lovely group of 25 children from 5D and 5M for a week of activities, games and cultural visits. As always, all the instruction and interaction from the Château staff was carried out in French and the children soon learnt that speaking confidence would be essential not only for the group activities, but also if they were going to get more pain or grenadine from the kitchens! It was a fantastic week with perfect weather and a great group of children who threw themselves wholeheartedly into every activity, were willing to try new food and experiences, and who showed off the French they have been learning at school with pride.

Lower down the school, Nursery have been so good this year that I ran out of topics and we started on some of the Reception ones! They have been a pleasure to teach, and have loved joining in with all our songs, rhymes and games.

Reception have had another good term. They listen carefully every week and are developing lovely accents. It is rare for me to need to use any English at all in their lessons, as their comprehension is getting quite impressive!

Form 1 have been practising transport words, farm animals and seaside vocabulary this term and have enjoyed their first writing in French over the year, and they will be working on this much more next year when they join Form 2.

Form 2 are learning to copy French words carefully and accurately and to recognise that French looks very different to the way it sounds. They love interactive games at the board and have been revising zoo animals, family members and rooms of the house this term.

Prep 3 have worked on fruit and vegetable vocabulary, a French story and farm animals this term, whilst Prep 4 have been listening to music by Saint-Saëns to extend their animal vocabulary and have revised the weather, the time and have learned to talk about what they are wearing.

Prep 6 organised another successful Café de l'École in the first half of term and have spent this term learning how to talk all about themselves and their families. They are getting the hang of verbs, which will be useful next year!

Many thanks to Mrs Groom and her team for the French breakfast we held in June. The weather may have been disappointing, but I was pleased that so many of you supported the event and we were able to raise a little money to subsidise future French trips.

Bonnes vacances à tous!


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