Ballard LangBlog

Summer Holidays

alex.bellars@ballardschool.co.uk (Alex Bellars) — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 19:21:46 +0100

As always, the summer holidays provide us teachers with an opportunity to catch up with developments in our subject areas and beyond...and for me, that means some serious Twitter-time feeding off all the fantastic knowledge of the people in my Twitterverse...

Hopefully some of these ideas will resurface in my teaching next year, and also be passed on to any of my colleagues who like the look of them!

I am also putting together a page of links for pupils, explaining in brief what each "thing" is useful for...I feel that often such lists of resources are aimed at our fellow practitioners rather than those we teach...

Watch this space!

Star of the Term - update!

alex.bellars@ballardschool.co.uk (Alex Bellars) — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 19:16:30 +0100

And the winner was...Ellie Crew! Unfortunately she was away at Prefect Training on the day, and so I was not able to catch up with her to let her know what she had won (a £30 Amazon voucher) and get a quick photo...

Star of the Term!

alex.bellars@ballardschool.co.uk (Alex Bellars) — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 13:54:00 +0100

It's almost time for the second ever winner of the MFL Star of the Term to be drawn! Once all this week's Stars of the Week are in the "hat", we will be ready to pick a lucky winner. Last term's winner received a voucher for a meal at a local tapas restaurant...this term's prize is still a secret, but it is guaranteed to please!

There have been a huge number of individual Stars again this term - and of course, anyone who has been a Star twice (or more!) or for more than one language will have enhanced their chances of winning the prize!

Day 5 - Puy du Fou

alex.bellars@ballardschool.co.uk (Alex Bellars) — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 12:10:03 +0100

We had a fantastic day at the Puy du Fou - a theme park based on the rich history of this part of France. It was even better than usual because the French "correspondants" were allowed to come with us...

We watched all 5 main shows: "Mousquetaire de Richelieu", "Les Vikings", "Le Bal des Oiseaux Fantômes", "Gladiateurs" and "La Bataille du Donjon". All brilliant, and everyone had their own personal favourite...All the texts are in French, so Ballard's own Seven Musketeers had to really tune their ears in to get a sense of what was being played out before their eyes!

Hopefully these pictures give you an idea of what it's like!

Day 5 - Puy du Fou

alex.bellars@ballardschool.co.uk (Alex Bellars) — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 13:43:20 +0100

Hopefully these pictures give you an idea of what it's like!

Day 6 - Trémosports!!!

alex.bellars@ballardschool.co.uk (Alex Bellars) — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 13:14:59 +0100

The pictures more or less speak for themselves!!! You can see how much fun it all was!!!

Day 4 - Paris!!!

alex.bellars@ballardschool.co.uk (Alex Bellars) — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 12:42:53 +0100

Day 4 – Tuesday 23rd June (will add more photos later! In a bit of a rush!!!)

Paris !

Always an early start (and a late return!) on this trip, in order to make the most of our time there...so up at 4.45 for breakfast, before a quick stumble from our hotel to the station (literally across the street) for us teachers... Slight further to come for some of the pupils, and their poor host parents!

After one change in Angers, onto a TGV for the hour-and-a-half high speed journey to Paris Montparnasse, at speeds of up to 180 mph. The countryside really does fly by at that speed, and many managed to get a bit of kip, with the help of iPods...

Once in Paris, it was straight to the Eiffel Tower – yes, the most visited monument in France! Having decided that queuing to take the lift (about 1 hour 45 minutes or so!) was NOT the way forward, we took the quicker, fitter option and walked it. This meant that, by the time we had been up, had a good look around and taken zillions of photos, had a coffee and taken the lift back down again, we would still have been in the queue!

Next was lunch (a feast for most of the pupils, whose host families seemed to think we were spending a week in Paris, not a day!), followed by the Seine river cruise. Perfect weather, and a chance to relax and really enjoy the sights.

On our way to Montmartre, we briefly stopped off at Etoile for a glimpse of the Champs-Elysées – and even had a quick blast of the chorus from the song! Then on to Anvers and up the Butte de Montmartre, where we had a look inside the Basilique de Sacré-Coeur and then wandered into the mazy streets of the artist’s quarter. The pupils managed to fend off the swarms of persistent sketchers (it costs about €40 now!), and kept their money for such lovely items as white trilbies, dubious sunglasses and I Heart Paris hoodies...

We were determined to be in plenty of time for our train home, after the “challenging” return journey of last year, so headed back via Notre-Dame de Paris in plenty of time.

Back to Cholet for 23.17 – and straight to bed after a brilliant but very tiring day...

Day 3 - Ribou

alex.bellars@ballardschool.co.uk (Alex Bellars) — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 07:49:09 +0100

Day 3 – Monday 22nd June (sorry - no photos; too busy pedalling!)

After an active afternoon yesterday, there were some stiff limbs as we mounted our bikes for the ride to Lac du Ribou! A few minutes of quiet Cholet streets and we were into the park, the cycle path following the river Moine for much of the way. Once outside Cholet, into agricultural land, we had one steep climb to negotiate, but were soon at the lake. For the first time since I have been doing the Exchange, we beat the minibus which transports all the picnic stuff!

After lunch, Monsieur Nédélec revealed the post-lunch activity: a sheet of paper for each of us, with “Aux Champs Elysées” on one side and “Hey Jude” on the other... The challenge for the week is for each group of students to teach the other their song! We had a little practice today – and it already sounded ok... We’ll see!

After lunch, there was time for a few games of “Canard...Canard...Canard...Oie!” and a bit of a kick-about before it was time to climb back into the saddle for the return journey to Cholet. No untoward incidents involving any of the English kids, although poor William (one of the Choletais) came off twice and got a bit of a bloody hand...

As I write this, many of the kids are planning to go to the swimming pool for a couple of hours... while we are invited to watch Monsieur Nédélec’s film of last year’s Exchange.

Day 2 - Pique-nique à Poupet

alex.bellars@ballardschool.co.uk (Alex Bellars) — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 07:46:28 +0100

I will tell you all about this when I get another moment in the collège ICT room!

French Exchange 2009 - Day 1

alex.bellars@ballardschool.co.uk (Alex Bellars) — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 09:14:28 +0100

What a pleasure to leave England behind in the rain! Bit of an early rise, admittedly, but everyone made it to Poole Ferry Terminal in plenty of time, and a few minutes later Highcliffe and Ballard students were chattering excitedly like old friends. (This is one aspect of the Exchange that we had not necessarily anticipated 3 years ago when Ballard came on board - but the number of friendships between the two English school that have been struck up over the years has been very positive...)

So...on to the Vomit Comet, which fortunately only lived up partially to its name. A fairly calm sea-state meant that most of us survived the crossing with our breakfasts intact! Some of the girls entered a competition and won the chance to have a guided tour of the captain's bridge - and I went along to document the event for posterity, of course!

Once in France, we quickly found our coach and headed off, via the coach driver's house so he could fetch his GPS!

The journey to Cholet seemed to pass very quickly, via the Baie du Mont St Michel, where we had a quick glimpse of the second most visited monument in France (can you guess what the number 1 is?)

Excitement and nerves went up a gear as we made our way into Cholet itself, and finally as we arrived at the Collège Trémolières, with our reception committe waiting!

We were welcomed heartily as usual, with home-baked cakes and drinks, plus a slideshow of the Exchange Pairs and a little presentation about what the week held in store for us...

Once everyone had met their partners and the ice had been well and truly broken, it was off with the families for a first evening in France!

I will do Day 2 when I get back from our Big Bike Ride - we are off in 15 minutes to Ribou lake...

A ce soir!!!