Trips

In March pupils spent six days in Norwich’s twin town of Rouen. With 12 hours of French tuition and evenings with host families, pupils had a really immersive experience using and improving their language skills. There were many highlights of the trip, including interviewing members of the public in a local park about their views on English and French stereotypes learning how to make macarons with a maître-patissier at his School of Pâtisserie being welcomed by French pupils and teachers during our visit to Collège Saint-Dominique, where languages play huge part in the curriculum. spending a wonderful day together exploring Paris- from the Arc de Triomphe to the Bateau Mouche and an afternoon exploring the meandering streets of Montmartre Mrs Watkinson, Mr Croston and Mrs Parkhouse were so impressed with the group’s open-minded attitude and willingness to use their French. Their confidence grew immeasurably through their daily interactions with the host families, language teachers, members of the public and in exchanges in shops and cafés. Equally, travelling everywhere on public transport gave us all a real feeling of adventure and an understanding of how easy and rewarding European travel can be. Pupils commented that: “My French improved a lot through communicating with the host family” “The excursion day in Paris was amazing! Inside Rouen, I really enjoyed the detailed city tour and the Joan of Arc museum.” “My French has improved tons, I can speak much more fluently and can hold conversations in French with my host family.” “French gets a lot easier towards the end of the trip and makes you better at French than everyone else.” “It’s a great experience to see how different cultures work and eat etc and definitely helps with French.” Taking part in such an overseas adventure in another language does more than just improve pupils’ language skills. Communication becomes paramount and we believe that undertaking such an endeavour necessitates a bit of bravery. Pupils become better conversationalists as a result, they uncover and revel in subtle cultural differences and deepen their understanding of their own heritage. They rely on the kindness of relative strangers and find the joy in the magic of putting the language they’ve been learning for years in the classroom to test ‘out in the field’, and finding that it actually works!

On Wednesday 5 March, all L4 pupils headed to West Norfolk to the beautiful medieval sites of Binham Priory and Castle Rising. The groups were blessed with glorious sunshine, and pupils thoroughly enjoyed learning about the history of each location. Binham Priory offered L4 pupils a fantastic insight into monastic life, whilst also neatly setting up the U4 curriculum, by witnessing the effects of the Reformation and the dissolution of the monasteries. The highlight of the day was seeing our pupils pretend to be a group of inspectors, visiting the priory and interviewing the monks about their livelihoods and duties. Castle Rising sparked interesting theories on how best to attack the stone keep, with medieval weaponry and the defensive features of a Motte and Bailey castle discussed. Students thoroughly enjoyed exploring the stone keep itself, playing out a hypothetical battle between Anglo-Saxon attackers and Norman defenders. The History Department is extremely grateful to both sites for allowing us to visit; the trip was a great success and we look forward to visiting again next year.