Bonjour!

We have a small group of 10 students - Year 9 and 10 - who are off to France in September this year.  At present they are meeting once a week at lunchtime to have some basic french lessons.  As we don't offer French as a subject at Albany Junior High School, the daughter of a staff member has come in to teach some basic french vocabulary to them.  I have uploaded a couple of videos of our session this week - introducing members of the family and family animals. 

We have been working towards our exchange since January 2013 when I was approached by Valerie Brun of College Albert Camus in Gaillac, Tarn.  We formed a small group as she has 10 students who form her project group and the students have been getting to know each through email, facebook and other social media.  We have worked together to complete an itinerary which has our students living in homestays for 10 days and attending College Albert.  They will have day trips to Albi and Carcasonne with their pen pals.  Following on from this we will travel north to Les Quesnoy.  We will visit the tunnels in Arras, sites within the Longueval Valley and then on to Ypres for 3 days.  We spend time at the Flanders Field Museum, Messines Ridge and Tyne Cot Cemetery.  

The students have been working exceptionally hard raising funds for the last year and many have raised in excess of $2000!  I believe it is true when I said last year we would get to France on the back of the humble sausage.  I never want to see a sausage sizzle again!  

Next term we start our research projects.  We have each 'adopted' a soldier from the Auckland Regiment who is buried at Tyne Cot.  We will be using archives from the Defence Force Museum, the Armoury (Auckland War Memorial Museum) and the War Graves Commission.  The students will create a digital history of the student and make these available as resources when finished for other students.  The digital histories will also feature on a website together with the book the French students are writing about their own soldiers.