LANGUAGES

ARRIVAL OF FRENCH EXCHANGE STUDENTS

This year's cohort of 15 French students from our sister school arrived on Friday 7 June. After a six month long process of applications, interviews and preparation, they finally arrived in Melbourne. The McKinnon families eagerly awaited their appearance through the gates at the International Arrivals of Melbourne Airport. There were some nerves in anticipation of hosting a French student for nearly four weeks but once they met, some of those nerves started to dissipate.

The host families had lots planned for their first weekend in Melbourne, which conveniently was extra long thanks to the public holiday. Many families visited Healesville Sanctuary, Brighton beach boxes, St Kilda, Port Melbourne, Chadstone and lots of other locations, as well as fitting in the typical weekend activities of sport, family time and social engagements.

The French students now look forward to following their partner to classes and attending the excursions through the school. First up is a day trip to Point Nepean.

Thank you to the 15 families taking part in the Exchange program. They are generous hosts who are making this experience so positive. It is a wonderful opportunity for all family members and for our school community.

Ms Kellie Dickson

French Teacher

SPANISH SOCCER INCURSION

Hola,

On Friday 24 May, our Year 9 Spanish class was in for a big treat! Our wonderful teacher, Maria-Carmen (aka Madame Jimenez to the French students) organised for us to indulge in Spain’s beloved sport - Soccer. Pablo and Josevi, representative coaches of Villarreal Melbourne, were introduced to us as we excitedly made our way down to the multi courts for our soccer clinic. After some basic warm-ups on the coldish day, we were ready for some drills. As the sun struggled to shine through the clouds, we all dribbled the ball up, down and in between the cones.

Instructions were called out to us in Spanish and although we initially struggled to understand the rules of the activities with our newly-learnt language, we worked it out and were very proud of ourselves. After that, we were itching to play a real soccer match and by that point, our competitiveness was at its peak. We were divided into three teams and the winners stayed on to play the next group. My team worked well together and stayed on for most of the competition. This was an amazing experience, a great opportunity to get active, play one of Spain's most loved sports, learn some new Spanish words and have great fun at the same time! A big thank you to Maria-Carmen for organising this and to Pablo and Josevi for coming over and teaching us some soccer!

Alyssa Nikolakopoulos

Year 9 Student