New Paris School Partnership!

In early March 2010 Ms Ball (Advanced Skills Languages Teacher) and Mr Cross (Deputy Headteacher) travelled to Paris in France to visit the latest school to form a partnership with Connaught School for Girls. Our latest Partner School is:

• Collège de la Fontaine aux Bergers
  14, rue de la Roche
  91340 OLLAINVILLE
  Paris
• website (opens in a new window)

This partnership will enable many more meetings between students by taking advantage of the new Stratford International Station that will be able transport staff and students to Paris in just 3 hours. The school itself is 40 minutes by train from central Paris but the partnership is aiming to connect students through a variety of projects that will initially involve meeting up in central Paris or Central London during day visits.

The visit to Paris by Ms Ball and Mr Cross began by meeting staff from Collège de la Fontaine aux Bergers at the Centre for International Studies in Sèvres, Paris. Here the schools were introduced to a Europe-wide e-twinning service that is a safe networking portal for students and staff to share ideas about the projects they are working on and to communicate with each other. The school delegates discussed initial ideas for partnership projects and how the partnership can best be established and sustained for the future.

The final part of the initial visit to France was a visit to meet the Principal (Headteacher) and English staff at Collège de la Fontaine aux Bergers. After a guided tour of the school, staff from both schools met to plan out the first two partnership projects that have begun already in two year groups that will run until the end of the academic year:

Year 7

• all students have written letters in French about themselves to a French student of the same age
• the French students will write back
• students will be given an opportunity to communicate electronically with each other in the language they are learning via a safe e-twinning networking portal
• students will create video blog about what is going on in their lives in the language they are learning

Year 9

• students in both countries are working hard to prepare a travel guide in the language they are learning for their City (London or Paris)
• when completed these guides will be exchanged
• if visits can be arranged French students will visit London to be given a tour of the city by Connaught students and staff, followed by Connaught students and staff to visit Paris and be guided around the city by students in our Partner School

Future Projects

The possibilities are endless but include:

• Art in both cities
• How power is generated
• Reducing pollution
• Sport
• More pictures (opens in a new window)