French Day: Holy Trinity School

At the end of June, the MFL Department was asked to go and help at Holy Trinity’s French day for their Year 6. Miss King and Miss Zuccarello took along three Year 11 pupils, Jack Britnell, Cariad Lucas and Anna Bradley, who eagerly volunteered to put their school uniform back on after finishing their GCSE exams, to help out on the day. They were also accompanied by two Year 12 students, Sophie Tipler and Jacob Grant.

Holy Trinity usually take their Year 6 to France every year, but this year they were unable to, so were keen to try and make their French Day as realistic as possible.

The year group was split into groups and given various activities to complete: these ranged from shopping in the market, cheese tasting, to building an Eiffel Tower!

Volunteers from Great Marlow were needed to help the children hear and speak as much French as possible just as if they had been in France.

Here is Sophie’s account of the day:

When we were all in the hall waiting to start, we were told that the pupils were on the ‘Eurostar’ and would have to go through a mock passport control. They would have a train ticket, boarding card and a ‘passport’. We had to ask them what their name was and their age in French, in order for them to proceed into ‘France’.

After that they all assembled in their groups and went to different activities. In the caged courts, on the playground, there was a market where we had to act as the market sellers; they could buy Eiffel tower key rings, a key ring with their names on it, a beret, water bottles, or bags. After they had bought their items we had a conversation with them in French.

As well as the market there was a building activity where they had to make an Eiffel tower out of marshmallows and spaghetti! However, they had to ask for all of their materials in French. The winner was the one who constructed the highest freestanding tower.

There was a cheese tasting activity, with cheeses such as Brie and Roquefort, which quite a few of them enjoyed. When it came to lunch they all had to queue up and ask for each different item in French before they could eat.

Towards the end of the day they played some games in French, they were explained in French and played speaking French.

Overall, many of us helping out were impressed with their level of French, as many of them only needed a little help with the longer words, we were also impressed with the many different activities they did.