French
Model UN Conference (French)
On Thursday 20th July, seven brave YR12 students (Blossom E, Louella B, Quinn S-T, Misty M, Scarlett T, Gwyneth O and Lucinda O) participated in the French Model UN Conference at the Victorian Academy of Teaching and Leadership, North Melbourne. The whole day was run in the French language.
The students were divided into two teams – one team was nominated to represent China, the other the Netherlands.
The theme of the conference was combatting Climate Change.
For several weeks before the event each team worked collaboratively behind the scenes to research their country’s position on the fight against climate change and had the task of preparing a three-minute ‘position statement’ that summarised their country’s stance on climate change. In addition, they had to study The Preamble and the Draft Resolution and decide which clauses / parts of the clauses they could or could not support on behalf of their country.
Our students delivered their position statements superbly and participated actively and intelligently during the moderated and unmoderated caucus sessions. They spoke very well in front of their peers from the other participating schools and their contributions were perceptive, incisive and authoritative. The poor teams representing the USA and Canada were skewered by our teams’ responses to their position statements and draft amendments to the clauses of the Draft Resolution!
The conference gave all students the opportunity to apply their language skills in a new, different and challenging environment. They rose to the challenge.
As usual, our students represented our school superbly – they are a credit to MGC! Well done to you all.
Bastille Day
On the 14th of July, French students celebrated and learnt about Bastille Day, a national holiday held every year in France. The 14th of July 1789 was an important date in French history as it marks the beginning of the French Revolution, which changed France forever and turned it into the republic it is today. In class, we learnt about Bastille day traditions like le grand défilé du 14 juillet, a big military parade held in Paris every year since 1880. At lunchtime we got to try some delicious macarons to celebrate the day. Bonne fête à tous!