French Programs

Sophie Oldfield
French Promotions

The past two weeks were filled with a variety of French events at Auburn High School.

French Promotions

As part of our campaign to promote our French Specialist Programs at AHS, our Principal Ross Pritchard, Junior School Assistant Principal Kristie Satilmis, Geneviève Papon and myself visited both Caulfield Junior College (CJC) and Camberwell Primary School (CPS) during week six to present our French Specialist programs to prospective families. Both visits were received positively by the families attending. We also hosted our very successful first school tour dedicated to the French programs. Our next French school tour will be held on Thursday 30 March.

Cérémonie de remise des diplômes du Brevet

On Thursday 9 March, we hosted our inaugural ceremony to present our 2022 Year 9 Binational students with their French Brevet Diploma, which had finally arrived from France! For this special occasion, we had the pleasure of welcoming Stephen Fraser, DET Deputy Secretary School Education Programs, Boris Toucas, representing the French Embassy, CJC Principal Caroline Pommier and CPS Principal Janet Gale, as well as many proud parents. Congratulations once again to our 2022 graduating students who achieved this very important milestone in their French education.

CJC Teachers visit AHS

As part of our growing collaboration between our two AEFE schools, two teachers from CJC were invited to observe one Year 7 Binational Science lesson. Tom Lewis, CJC newly appointed STEM teacher and David Prevet, Grade 6 Binome teacher, were delighted to be able to greet their former students and see a Binational science class in action! This was also the opportunity to start building a “Science” connection between Grade 6 and Year 7 students.

Kangourou des maths

On Thursday 16th March, all students from the French Binational and French Partial Immersion programs took part in the annual Kangourou des maths competition along with hundreds of thousands of students around the world from primary school to university level. This mathematics competition tests skills in logic, geometry and arithmetic, all in French. Congratulations to all participants!

French Partial Immersion

This term, our Year 8 Science Immersion students have been learning biology, particularly the human circulatory system. Last week, they had the opportunity to do a heart dissection to be able to fully understand how the heart functions. This proved to be a fascinating and engaging experience for all!

La journée de la francophonie

On Monday 20 March, we celebrated the journée internationale de la francophonie. This day celebrates all French-speaking countries and the 300 million French people who speak French around the world! French is the fifth most spoken language in the world. At AHS, this day holds a special place as three of our French staff are native to French Islands, including Mauritius Island, Reunion Island and New Caledonia/Tahiti.

In preparation for this day, Year 7 French students created flags of francophone countries which were on display in the student entrance. Throughout the day, our usual bells were replaced with exotic French music, much to the amusement of students and staff! Madame Boyer, Madame Marie and Madame Wong-Fat ran a detailed lunchtime presentation and workshop on French islands music and dance. Staff were encouraged to wear a tag in French, such as: “Vive le français!”, “C’est fantastique!”, “Bonne journée!”. Finally, students could take part in a quiz and a flag hunt to win prizes!

Education Perfect Language Championship

During the last few weeks, our students competed in the Languages Competition in Education Perfect. Our school came 154th in Australia out of 1783 schools. We were 41st in Victoria, out of 413 schools and 201st worldwide out of 2532 schools!

Well done to Tracy Le for coming first with a score of 3649 points and obtaining a Gold certificate, therefore winning free tickets to the Alliance Française Film Festival. The following students are also congratulated for their excellent efforts and winning certificates:

Lachlan Apsey (Gold)
Naomi Borin (Bronze)
Bansi Dorji (Silver)
Poppy Adam Vo (Silver)
Summer O’Keefe (Silver)
Egbert Zhu (Silver)
Harvey Campbell (Silver)
Elliot Keenan (Silver)
Henry Hudson (Silver)

French student helpers

Thank you to Prateek G, Charlotte P and Oliver C for accepting the role of student helpers. Their feedback and support are appreciated and they will also judge future competitions! We look forward to hearing their ideas and working with them.