Day One of French Week.
Day pupils and their parents were warmly welcomed with music and a ‘bonjour’ in the Prep School car park by the 5eme pupils.
Assembly started with a song from Les Choristes sung by all children from Year 3 to Year 8 and all staff.
Lady Northbourne spoke to the children at the Old Rectory about French Nursery Rhymes and the origins of our wonderful French project.
Three musicians played in the dining hall at the Prep School:
Arran playing the prelude from 8 easy pieces opus 43 from Gliere,
Oscar played the Laurentide Waltz by Oscar Petersen and
Denis played a gigue of JS Bach.
During morning and afternoon breaks, the corridors echoed to the music of Charles Trenet and Barbara.
A demain!
Mardi 8 Mars 2011 Mardi Gras
An excellent assembly was taken by Mrs Riley, this morning at Church about Joan of Arc!
The Old Rectory pupils came to the Prep School to show off their fantastic, colourful masks. Today is also French poetry day and we had a good diversity of readings during lunch:
La grenouille qui voulait être aussi grosse que le boeuf de Jean de la Fontaine (read by Elise);
Le racisme (read by Alienor and Lou);
Le brouillard de Mr. Careme (read by Amelia);
Lundi Rue Christine, de G Apollinaire (read by Elisa);
Demain dès l’aube de Victor Hugo (read by Antoine);
And Cyrano de Bergerac de Edmond Rostand (read by Denis);
Tonight we have Casino Royale, an entertainment evening from 7 to 8pm organised by Mr Papougnot. It is a series of bets and challenges at the end of which the boarders have to win some (fake) money otherwise forfeits will be especially selected for the losers… Each boarders will be given 1770 (fake) euros to start with. A great evening lies in store.
Wednesday
The French Café has again been a great success this year and Mrs Cohen and the 6eme pupils have worked all night long to bake pains au chocolat and croissants, not to mention the roasting and grinding of the coffee seeds in the early morning!
During form assembly, the 6e/5e presented their fashion show with Mr Papougnot in the double classroom while the English forms proceeded quietly with the reading of French articles with their tutors. The Headmaster had to come twice to check that not only the sound level in the double classroom did not exceded the 120 dB but also that the dress code was fully respected...
French cooking was on the menu at the Old Rectory with some great recipes.
At supper, Lesley Oliver did all the boarders a big surprise with moules-frites and it was amazing to see so many of us, including staff, asking for more!
The French film in the evening after tuck was Manon des Sources, a typical French story of a young ‘bergère’ whose natural charm electrifies a whole village in the south of France. The boys here at Northbourne were very happy to watch such a lovely motion picture!
Thursday
Time for the 6e/5e fashion show... Boum, Boum and Watch Me! Me! Me! Yea... What a great show with Philippe on the microphone, expertly commenting on each and every top model!
Lunch was very strange as Mr Papougnot played all his songs, which were so old that even the kitchen ladies could not serve us without ear plugs.
The Old Rectory focused instead on cooking French bread and the pupils over there had good fun playing with the dough before cooking it and eating frogs legs.
Friday
It was the last day of the French week. 5R under the lead of Mr Riley, took assembly and delivered the best message of the week based on tolerance and respecting each other differences. They started with the example of a rugby match between France and England played live in the double classroom and finished with a fantastic PowerPoint presentation about the amazing parallel between the capital cities and the similar habits and the customs of our two countries.
The Old Rectory organised its French Café with great success too.
The 6eme helped set up the double classroom for the staff French buffet that smelt sooo much of France: cheese, paté, French baguettes, saucisson, etc...
The teachers arrived at 6pm in a happy mood and we wonder why?
Until next year tout le monde!
Patrick Papougnot.
