Year 7 in France - Day 2

Having enjoyed croissants and (amongst many other options) une tasse de chocolat chaud, we made our way to Futuroscope. The sun was shining, so the colourful tops, shorts and shoes made a welcome return this year!

 
 
 
 

 
Our Futuroscope tour guides took us straight to one of the newest attractions in the park, Le Petit Prince, a 4D film about the well-known French storybook character. Students thought the comical, animated  experience was uniquely charming and dramatic – especially when the dragon snorted ‘mucus’ and warm air over the audience and the bats flew between our legs! (Well, that’s what it felt like - honest!)
 

 
From there we were taken to Tahiti Extrême, an iMax presentation featuring surfing with Kelly Slater on the waves of Teahuppo. Some of us were so inspired that we just had to have a go ourselves!

 
 
 










Students were given free time to explore the Futuroscope park in the afternoon before eating dinner together in the park.


It was James's birthday today - Joyeux Anniversaire, James!



Quote of the day goes to Emily who was heard saying, "When you are in France you learn to speak more French!". Mais oui, exactement!
 




As this post is uploaded, it's 9.30pm local time and we are just eagerly awaiting a laser show in the Futuroscope park. If we manage to get any good photos we'll try and upload them here tomorrow. Bonsoir. À demain!

 

 

Year 7 Germany Trip - Day Two

We've had lots of fun: coach one visited a German school nearby - which used to be a cloister and reminded us of Hogwarts. Here, our children attended several workshops in which they could practise their language skills and make friends with German pupils. It was such a success that we are hoping to include this event for all children in future!

In the afternoon they saw the Deutsches Eck in Koblenz. 

Coach two visited the pretty village of Boppard and went up on a chair lift to enjoy the loop of the River Rhine - and the play group. They then had a guided tour around Marksburg Castle. 

After a fabulous dinner of Brokkoli soup (surprisingly nice if you don't know what it is!), lovely Schnitzel, and Eis for dessert, there was a music quiz and an early night to gather our strength for the next days...

The kids are still wonderful to be with: enthusiastic, willing to try out their German skills and tasting new foods. 

Although some people will have a delayed start into Fantasialand on Thursday...

Year 7 in France - Day 1

We set off at around 3.30am from school. No-one slept much on the coach on the way to Dover; everyone was much too excited! The ferry crossing was calm and afforded us the opportunity to eat a good breakfast before continuing with the rest of our journey. We were fascinated to see the Eiffel Tower and Sacré-Cœur as we passed through Paris. Of course, some of the students were just too tired to take in the French countryside as we made our way on to Poitiers.

We arrived at out hotel at around 5.15pm local time and, once we had familiarised ourselves with our rooms, we had an opportunity to complete the first page of our activity booklet and stretch our legs with a game of football. By the time dinner was served we were beginning to get really hungry. So, the three course meal of coleslaw and green salad, sausage and mash, and raspberry doughnuts was much appreciated!


We also had had a couple of special events today: it was Tim's birthday, so we raised a glass in his honour at dinner this evening. And Adam lost a tooth during the journey. (We have the tooth ... we're just not entirely sure whether the tooth fairy will find him ... we suppose it depends whether she's reading this blog).


We are looking forward to being able to walk into the Futuroscope park tomorrow (after a bit of a lay-in in the morning!).

Year 7 Germany: Arrived at the hotel, all fine

Very tired but happy. Fisch und Pommes, a lovely walk along the river Mosel and "46 a side" on the field in the woods.

Ankunft am HotelAnker

 

 

 

On the way

Happy to say that Tomlinscote were clearly the best behaved school group on the boat doing us proud!

So far so good 2013

On the ferry. All kids happy and hyper, but well-behaved...Germany here we come!

Some enjoyed a full English as soon as they set foot on the ferry.

Auf Wiedersehen! Au revoir! Adios! to our MFLassistants

 Here is a text by our wonderful foreign language assisant Angela Fatelli, who has been helping us for nine months, talking to classes across the age range about cultural aspects of her home country and coaching small groups in German conversation, as well as participating in numerous trips and projects - for the handball days she even taught in French, as she speaks that language fluently, too. For that reason, she is also accompanying the year 7 pupils to France this year, before returning to Germany to finish her teacher studies. 

We'd like thank for her excellent work during her stay and wish her lots of luck and success!

Read the text in German and see how much you understand (the translation is below if you really must!).

 
Liebe Schülerinnen und Schüler,

wie ihr vielleicht wisst, werde ich bald nach Deutschland zurückkehren, da mein Jahr als Fremdsprachenassistentin an der Tomlinscote School nun fast vorbei ist. Vielen Dank für die vielen interessanten und bereichernden Unterrichtsstunden, die ich euch unterrichten durfte. Ich hoffe, ihr hattet viel Spaß! Es war mir eine große Freude, euch im Deutschunterricht zu unterstützen und ich hoffe, ich konnte euch einige Einblicke in die deutsche Sprache und Kultur vermitteln. Ich bin glücklich über die vielen positiven Erfahrungen, die ich hier machen durfte. Meine Zeit in England war genial und ich werde mich gern an die Zeit an der Tomlinscote Schule erinnern!

Ich wünsche euch alles Gute für die Zukunft!

Vielen Dank an euch Tomlinscote Schülerinnen und Schüler und natürlich auch ein großes Dankeschön an die Lehrer!

Auf Wiedersehen!
Angela



Dear Tomlinscote students,

as you might know I will soon go back to Germany as my year as Foreign Language Assistant at Tomlinscote is almost over. I wanted to thank you for the many interesting and enriching lessons I was able to teach. I hope you also enjoyed them! I am happy if I managed to help you with your speaking and if I could give you insights into the German language and culture. I am happy about the many positive experiences which I was able to make here. My stay in England was an amazing time and I wish you all the best for your future!

A big thank you to all Tomlinscote students and staff members!

Bye bye
Angela

Student of the Month - June 2013: Winner of Oxford German Competition

This month's Star Student is

Isobel Leigh 
for her amazing success in the Oxford German Network Olympiad! 
The theme was Grimm's fairy tales (as it had been the 200th anniversary of their publication this year), and Isobel chose to make a short film about Schneewittchen (Snow white).

We are very proud to announce that she is the WINNER in the film category for Year 10 -11, having beaten entrants from all over the UK. Isobel was invited to attend a ceremony at the Bodleian Library in Oxford a few days ago to celebrate her success!

What a wonderful achievement!


I asked Isobel to write a bit about the whole experience in German:

a screen shot from the film

"Frau Brown hat mir über diesen Wettbewerb erzählt und ich habe gefühlt, dass es toll wäre, es vor meinen Prüfungen zu machen. Ich habe das Märchen “Schneewittchen” gewählt, weil ich gedacht habe, dass es das interessantste ist und anders als der Disney film, deshalb habe ich mehr über dieses Märchen gelernt. Wir konnten entscheiden, welches Projekt wir machen wollten. Ich habe mich für einen Film entschieden, denn ich habe früher kurze Filme mit meinen Freunden gemacht und ich habe gedacht, dass es eine Herausforderung wäre. 

Zuerst habe ich das Drehbuch geschrieben und dafür habe ich die originale Geschichte und die englische Geschichte benutzt. Danach habe ich mit meinen Freunden aus Collingwood die Filme gemacht – sie war Schneewittchen. Für die sieben Zwerge habe ich Schattenmarionetten gemacht und meine Eltern haben mir geholfen, die zu filmen. Dann habe ich alles geschnitten, was eine lange Zeit gedauert hat. Am Ende habe ich den Film zu die Oxford German Network geschickt. 

Sie haben mir in einer Email gesagt, dass ich gewonnnen habe und ich war sehr glücklich. Am Dienstag bin ich mit meiner Mutter und meinem Bruder nach Oxford gegangen und im Bodleian Bibliothek gab es eine Zeremonie für die Gewinner. David Cornwell (John le Carré) hat den Gewinnern die Preise, die Bücher waren, überreicht und deswegen war das auch toll."

Isobel Leigh

John le Carré at the Bodleian Library in Oxford

The proud winners posing with John le Carré