Year 11 take in Paris sights
Almost a hundred Year 11 students returned to school this week following a very memorable and highly successful French trip.
After a day spent travelling to their base at Château de Grande Romaine - where the Brazilian men's football team stayed during the 1998 World Cup campaign - Year 11 took on an action-packed sightseeing tour over the weekend.
The first day saw a walking tour of Paris. Starting at the Bastille and moving onto the Jardin du Luxembourg for lunch - stopping off at the Place des Vosges and the Panthéon along the way - students enjoyed a boat cruise on the River Seine after stopping by the Louvre. There was even a short period for students to walk and shop along the Champs-Élysées, over which the world famous Arc de Triomphe looms large.
On the second day students visited the two most-visited tourist attractions in Paris - the Sacré-Cœur Basilica and, of course, the Eiffel Tower. The group spent some free time in the historic Montmartre area of Paris - famous as the home of Van Gogh - as well as visiting the Trocadéro and Notre Dame Cathedral. The tour even drove past the famous Moulin Rouge cabaret.
Evenings saw students enjoy some relaxing downtime after busy days spent sightseeing although, along with opportunities for socialising, students also had chance to take part in organised activities such as football, crepe making - and there was even a retro disco!
This trip is well established and over the past decade many GCSE French students have seen the Year 11 Paris trip as a natural rite of passage along their journey at The Friary. As in previous years, senior leaders used travelling time for conversations with each student about progress on their courses, their aspirations for the future and plans for their Post-16 education, training or employment.
Blessed with pleasant weather, the group's impeccable behaviour and students' genuine enthusiasm, the trip must rank as one of The Friary's most successful Paris outings yet.
Mr Drury, Headteacher, said: "I'd like to thank Mrs Wakelin as trip leader and the French department, as well as other staff who gave up their weekend to ensure the trip was able to go ahead. But any trip is really judged by how much the students enjoy it, and what they get out of it, and on this basis it was a huge success. Our Year 11 certainly did The Friary proud and it was a pleasure to share this experience with them."
