Alison Cave, Montsaye Community College

On Friday 11th July a “Bastille Day” celebration of Primary Languages took place for the second year at Wicksteed Park, Kettering, Northamptonshire. The Park took on a real flavour of France as the usual information signs were replaced with ones which had been translated by students from local secondary schools and Main Street was transformed into Rue du 14 Juillet and decorated with bunting and tricolores.

This unique event is a wonderful example of collaboration between local secondary and primary schools from across the county.
Representatives from Montsaye Community College and Prince William School, Oundle (both Specialist Language Colleges) formed the planning committee together with Wicksteed’s Education Manager and Events Manager and the sub-editor of the Kettering Evening Telegraph.

We staged three main events

1. The Flying Theatre troupe presenting a KS2 French play
2. David Hicks - aka Monsieur X – with his French raps, songs and guitar
3. Flossie Malavialle – a French folk singer from the North-east who first came to England on a teacher exchange.

There were many other exciting events staged by secondary students such as aerobics, the French Foreign Legion, a boules competition, a play performed by students, tag rugby games, a French café with croissants and orange juice donated by the local supermarket and much much more – all planned to give the primary pupils the opportunity to practice their French and immerse themselves in the culture. This has also provided a vehicle for the gifted and talented secondary students to act as animateurs to support the primary pupils on the day.

This year we also had two primary schools staging an event – A French market activity and Corsican traditional dancing. All activities were matched to the KS2 Framework for Languages, giving pupils a good balance of language and cultural experiences.

Two teams of gifted and talented students and their teachers from the English departments of Montsaye Community College, Rothwell and Prince William School, Oundle were “roving reporters” for the day. 

They worked together with Neil Pickford, deputy editor of the Kettering Evening Telegraph in a newsroom set up in the park.  Despite a few initial problems with Wi-fi they managed to get all their articles completed and digital photos sent back to the Evening Telegraph offices by the end of the day

As the children started to arrive at the Park there was a real buzz. The student animateurs were busy preparing for their events and were excited by the opportunity to use their language skills to support the KS2 children.

Every school was timetabled for one of the three main professional events and three or four events staged by secondary schools. Each group also had a slot on stage when they performed to other children, a range of songs, finger rhymes or in one case a short play, from their first years of learning French. Teachers and animateurs worked together to provide a first rate experience for the children.

Throughout the day I stopped to chat to groups of teachers and their pupils who excitedly told me what they had done. This was “Excellence and Enjoyment” at its best! 

To close the event there was a Grand Parade in which 1600 children processed through the park waving flags and carrying examples of work about the area they had researched to the cheers of staff and animateurs who lined the route!

We had been watching the dark clouds all afternoon ready to put our wet weather contingency plans into effect but it held off until the end of the Parade and the children were heading for their coaches and home when the heavens opened. The student animateurs who had worked so hard all day were undeterred by this deluge and set off to enjoy free rides in the park as a reward for their efforts!

It was a great day and in September we will begin planning Bastille Day 2009 which will take place on Friday 10th July.

Finally a quote from a teacher who attended the day received via email (one of many):
“We had a tremendous time. It was worth all the hard work. Where do I get next year’s application form from? I'll fill it in NOW.”

Yes, to see the enjoyment on the children’s faces made it all worth while!