Christchurch-Canterbury

Quoi de neuf?

Etienne's latest poster about his tours in Australasia later in the year. Please reach out if you are interested in hosting a concert

Welcome back to Term 2

Bonjour, I hope you have all had a good break and are ready for the start of term 2.

Last term many of us were fortunate to attend the NZALT Langsem, held at Papanui School. One of the workshops which we attended was led by Florence Lyons from Tui Tuia. The title of the workshop was Le français sans frontières. Florence gave us many ideas about how to teach about other French speaking countries around the world.

Do not forget about the student NZAFT Poster competition "Exchanges are awesome" which closes at the end of term 2. Encourage your students to enter so that we can have a winner from our region! https://www.nzaft.co.nz/competitions

A bientôt and look out for more updates as the term progresses!

Bonne rentrée!

Susan

L'année scolaire 2025

Bonjour tout le monde and welcome back to another year of French. I hope that you have all settled in well to your new school year and your classes are going well. Read below for what we have on offer this year.

Langsem - The NZALT are holding their bi-annual Langsem mini conference on Saturday 29th March at Papanui High School. You can register here: https://nzalt.org.nz/professional-learning/langsem-2025/. The keynote is Adriana Ramirez, who is based in Canada but will be zooming in. She teaches Spanish, in the Canadian bilingual system, but her ideas will be transferable. This is a good opportunity for us all to get together as Canterbury Language teachers and to get some much needed PD. There will also be a yummy morning tea and lunch!
UC Senior French Day - Monday 23rd June. This is a wonderful day for both students and staff run by the amazing team of Erica Mouhica and Antonio Visselli. Come and listen to the keynote speaker and the beautiful voices of La Découverte .
Etienne est de retour! Yes Etienne is coming back to Christchurch. We have two concert dates: 28th July at Lincoln High and 29th July at CBHS. You don't want to miss this! Details will be available soon!
Le Delf Scolaire examen will be held in August. This is a great opportunity for your students to refine their French in preparing for the exam, get a recognised international qualification and some much needed French practice before the derived grade exams.

Merci beaucoup. Please let me have any of your exciting news from around the schools in the area!

A bientôt

Susan - NZAFT Regional Officer

Bonjour tout le monde,

Thank you to those of you who made it to our recent PD held on Teacher Only Day on 14.11.24. It was a combined French, Spanish, German, Chinese, Japanese and Maori meeting under the umbrella of NZAFT and NZALT. Annelies Mead, NCEA Implementation Facilitator gave a keynote on Zoom, about using speaking activities in the classroom. This was a talk which she had previously presented at Conference earlier in the year and it enabled us to revisit speaking ideas as we prepare for the Ramp changes which are happening in 2025. She then talked about these changes. After a delicious morning tea provided by NZALT, we got into groups and discussed the benefits, challenges, and best practice of the interact standard. A big thank you to Michelle Pinkney for hosting us at CGHS.

Etienne and Selwyn and STAC French teachers

Etienne and Christchurch French teachers

Etienne in concert at CBHS

Making nesting boxes with Pohatu Penguins

Bonjour tout le monde! I hope that term 4 has started well for you.

Term 3 was a busy one in Canterbury. On July 29th Etienne performed one concert at CBHS and another at Lincoln High. Both were well attended and enjoyed by the students and staff alike. Etienne is hoping to return next year. If you would like to host a concert at your school then please email me (sjn@lincoln.school.nz) and I will be in touch.

In July students from the Swiss exchange arrived in New Zealand. Lincoln was fortunate to have three students participate in this exchange. The Swiss students stayed for 7 weeks in Christchurch and their Kiwi partners travel to Switzerland in December.

In August the Delf Scolaire was held at Shirley Boys High. This examination was well attended by many students who were sitting either the A1/A2/B1 or B2 examination. This year, the Alliance Française provided complimentary classes in the run-up to the exam, which many students took advantage of and found beneficial. It is fantastic that our students can gain not only a national qualification, but also an international one in French.

At the end of August, STAC and Lincoln held their annual Year 10 French immersion day at the Hagley Petanque Club. The students took part in various French activities, learnt how to play Petanque and ate delicious French food.

In September, I organised a French immersion day for my Year 12 and 13 class with Pohatu Penguins. The company is based in Akaroa and the guides are French speaking! They offer many varieties of activities and I can recommend them highly for a most fantastic and special day for you and your students. Our bus dropped us off at their office in Akaroa and they took us in mini vans along the scenic backcountry roads of Banks Peninsula to Flea Bay, with full commentary in French along the way. Once in Flea Bay we looked at les manchots nesting in their boxes and then after lunch, in groups, students made a nesting box and put it in place. My students loved this day and were amazed at how much French they understood. I cannot recommend Kevin, Geraldine and the rest of the team highly enough for a French-filled magical day for you and your students.

Please let me know some of the activities taking place in your school so that we can post them here and share the wonderful things happening in French classrooms in Canterbury.

A bientot!

Susan Johnson (sjn@lincoln.school.nz)

Étienne performing in Christchurch

This Monday and Tuesday, the Canadian singer, Étienne is coming to perform at Boys' High and Lincoln High School. Tickets are still available. Please contact Susan Johnson (sjn@lincoln.school.nz) if you are interested.

Come and meet Étienne

At Turanga library in the city centre on Monday 29th July at 4pm. We will meet in the café first. Afterwards, we we go to a meeting room on the third floor so that Etienne can tell you all about the exciting content which he writes for the classroom.

2024 we welcomed the first Tahiti exchange students at St Margaret's College. The exchange was planned since 2019 when the initiative was rudely disrupted by Covid19. However, we persisted and are delighted to say that the first group of girls went to Papeete in September 2023 and the first Tahitian group visited us in February 2024. The next exchange is going to be in September 2024 and this time we invited Christ's College to the party.

DELF SCOLAIRE 2023 went really well! Thanks to all the teachers and students that participated. The students seemed more relaxed than in previous years and the results are looking good. If you are interested in your students getting involved, let me know. The DELF exam is valid for life!!! B1 is what you need for immigration and B2 is for entry to University in France. Don't forget they have several universities that offer free tuition for international students. A1 and A2 are great for gaining confidence in French and showing how much progress you have made. The listening tests are multi-choice!!

As usual the Journée d’Immersion at the University of Canterbury was a big success in June. The students really participated well in all the activities and expressed how great it was to experience life at University. If you have any pictures to share please get hold of Eric or Antonio.

Cluster group 2023

Last year there was a request for info about the Cluster Group in ChCh for language teachers. We get together for about an hour to network, share ideas, have afternoon tea and get a heads up on cool stuff… Venue- Papanui High School in the upstairs boardroom, Facilitator: Michelle Dalley dlm@papanui.school

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