Ballard LangBlog

What is the purpose of education? What the pupils say

Download The purpose of education - pupils' eye view

I have been following with interest the ongoing discussions on Twitter about the direction(s) education is taking in this country at the moment. Thanks to Doug Belshaw and Andy Stewart for to trying to crystallise these debates around a common forum - Purpos/ed (which I have in my own way being attempting to do in a rather narrower, rantier and overtly politically-motivated way via the Black Paper wiki...)

It occurred to me that one constituency which we, as educators and adults, perhaps neglect in our striving to "find the answer" to such questions, is the young people themselves.

So I asked a few of my classes, and the above attachment contains the answers. I did not edit or re-order the responses, apart from to save the final one til last. I hope that they will add something to the discussion, in their own way.

Joe Dale built it... And yes, we came, we saw, we WILL conquer!

#ililc

ICT Links Into Languages Conference

12-13 February 2011

 

The dust has barely settled from the weekend, and yet I am already feeling that I am lagging behind in the post-conference wave of reactions and blogposts, with so many surfing the energy of 130 acquaintances old, new and newly-transformed from "virtual" to "face-to-face".

I have already spent several hours ruminating on what the conference means for me, for my Head of Department, for other members of the Department, and for us all as a profession. And even wider, I guess, as a country!

As many of you will be aware, who have met me – I am a bit of a meandering, “off-at-a-tangent” kind of a guy. So apologies if this post does a bit of that!

Although there were MANY sessions which I thoroughly enjoyed, and from which I will derive huge ongoing value, I am going to start by referring to the one session which had the greatest individual impact on me personally: Chris Harte’s “Languages:Reboot” seminar, which was streamed live here. I did also record it myself on my Kodak PlaySport, but although the audio is fine, the picture is a bit jumpy for some reason. Will try to recover it and get it on here at some stage – the different perspective is quite fun.

Chris was one of the people I was most looking forward to meeting “f2f” (face-to-face, in social media parlance!), although I already felt that I kind of knew him, having shared many conversations on Twitter over the past months. Incidentally, meeting other such “old friends who I’d never met before” such as Chris Fuller, Amanda Salt, John Connor, Lisa Stephens, Alex Blagona (the other Alex B!), Jo Rhys-Jones and many, many more was, for me, the real highlight of the weekend – as well as renewing friendships I had struck up at the Oldham MFLS&T not so long ago, with such stars in the MFL Twitterati firmament as Isabelle Jones, Clare Seccombe and of course The Legendary Joe Dale ™. (Apologies to anyone I have not specifically mentioned by name!)

And the perspective offered by Chris in his talk aligns pretty much entirely with my way of thinking about MFL learning (and teaching). Whether or not this “reboot” will be allowed to take place remains to be seen: although those of us at #ililc may well represent an increasing groundswell across the UK (and beyond), the fact remains that, although it is us at the chalkface, we are not the ones dictating the educational landscape of our country – we merely navigate our way as best we can across the ever-shifting sands, which blow in ways that appear at best arbitrary and at worst downright inappropriate and ideologically-unsound…

A quick semi-rhetorical question: if the Coalition is prepared to grant the majority of power within the National Health Service to the “troops on the ground”, the GPs, and potentially to dictate the structure of the NHS for a generation in so doing – why then is it that the other great political football, the “National Education Service” is being on the one hand broken along triple-tiered lines while simultaneously 50 new centralised powers are pulled into the centralised clutches of a Secretary of State for Education who appears anything from gaffe-prone to actively destructive, depending on which papers and educational blogs one reads? And by the way – I am not in any way defending previous incumbents of that position – far from it! (Actually, my wish is that things such as Health and Education are appreciated for what they are – too important and too long-term, as projects, for mere “here-today-and-gone-tomorrow” merchants in the House of Commons to be trusted with them. Take them out of political control entirely, and instead entrust them to people who know what they are talking about…)

Phew. That was quite a long semi-rhetorical question! (My A-level teachers and university lecturers always warned me against verbosity…!)

Anyway – so back to Chris and his seminar! At the end, following witty, compelling talk of SOLO taxonomy, creativity, learning to learn rather than to jump through Exam Board hoops, I honestly did have goosebumps. And said so! The vibe in the room was a tangible sense that, if enough of us swim against the turgid flow emanating from the DfE and its adherents, we can create something genuinely exciting. And incidentally, Mr Gove – in the process, fashion an Education System of which to be truly proud, and which countries would sacrifice cartloads of PISA statistics to emulate…

So there.

The next question – as some of us have already started to debate – is how to take this message back to our Departments, Senior Managers and Head Teachers, and ensure that the impact is wide enough to achieve the “critical mass” that sees it become the norm and not the exciting exception. No problem!

Well, one way to do this would be to follow the road-map laid out in typically clear, effective style by Isabelle Jones here in her presentation on “Developing the use of ICT in the MFL Faculty”. This was one of those presentations that I did not get to see live, but have caught up with in the days following the Conference. Brilliant.

I could go on and on about the other sessions I attended – but I won’t, ‘cos Spurs are kicking off against AC Milan and my attention is drifting! Believe me when I say that every single one of you sparked ideas and renewed vigour within me which will hopefully be translated into enjoyment and excellence among my pupils. Thanks to all. So I finish with a little poem: wonder how observant you are after a long day at work…

The #ililc Effect

Usual weekend fare?

Not likely!

 

Crazy people with

Heads full of

Amazing notions about

Teaching and learning

 

Modern Foreign Languages

In new and exhilarating ways,

Nudging their students,

“Useless at French” or not, to

Sweep aside old-fashioned,

Crusty tenets of pedagogical pap,

Utilising vibrant new taxonomies,

Leaving govian ideologies for dead.

EBacc? Boll*cks!

 

Responding to the Call for Evidence

My response to the DfE's "Call for Evidence" (http://www.education.gov.uk/consultations/index.cfm?action=consultationDetails&consultationId=1730&external=no&menu=1)

The following is a selection of the questions from - and my replies to - the Government's consultation regarding the review of the National Curriculum. (These are my own personal viewpoints, and do not represent those of Ballard School.)

 

GENERAL

What do you think are the key strengths of the current National Curriculum? 

I find this question quite hard to answer positively, to be honest.

What do you think are the key things that should be done to improve the current National Curriculum?

Place the key decisions in the hands of teachers rather than politicians. And no, that does NOT only apply to the current Coalition, but to the previous and the next Government too. 

What are the key ways in which the National Curriculum can be slimmed down?

This question assumes that respondents agree that "slimming down" of the NC is desirable.
The problem lies with our obsession with assessments, data and measuring achievement rather than stimulating lifelong love of learning.

 

PE

What do you consider should be the essential elements of the Programme of Study for physical education(PE)?

enjoyment of exercise in itself

teamwork

good sportsmanship

ability to assess own and others' performance with a view to making improvements

Considering your response to the above, should the Programme of Study for physical education be set out on a year by year basis or as is currently, for each key stage?

Again, the strictures placed on the review process by the narrowness of the question system above place limitations on how we can respond. Neither "Year by Year" nor "Key Stages" are the right answer, in my opinion: we need to be able to work outside of these artificial frameworks.

Perhaps the notion of the "Key Stage" is something we need to revisit?

 

Please bear in mind in considering your responses that removing a subject from the National Curriculum would not mean that that subject was not important, or that schools should stop teaching it. Instead, it would mean that it is not necessary for the Government to specify in a statutory Programme of Study precisely what should be taught in that subject, and that decisions should instead be made at local level, by individual schools and teachers.

What is the Ebacc all about, then?

 

ART & DESIGN

Art and design is currently a compulsory National Curriculum subject, with a statutory Programme of Study, at Key Stages 1-3. In future, do you think art and design should continue to be a National Curriculum subject?

I believe that expressing oneself artistically is a fundamental aspect to being human. To remove it as a central plank of our curriculum smacks of philistinism.

But by the same token, I feel that students should not be forced into a narrow, prescriptive, form of artistic study.

 

ICT

Information and communication technology is currently a compulsory National Curriculum subject, with a statutory Programme of Study, at Key Stages 1-4. In future, do you think information and communication technology should continue to be a National Curriculum subject?

ICT skills MUST be central to pupils' future learning: much of what pupils will be facing in the future will be ICT-related. And much of it doesn't even exist yet!

 ICT should in fact be added to the so-called "core subjects"...

 

MFL

Modern foreign languages is currently a compulsory National Curriculum subject, with a statutory Programme of Study, at Key Stage 3 only. In future, do you think modern foreign languages should continue to be a National Curriculum subject?

Yes - BUT, crucially, NOT via a "one-size-fits-all" model (and DEFINITELY not with the current GCSE as the sole outcome).

 

MUSIC

Music is currently a compulsory National Curriculum subject, with a statutory Programme of Study, at Key Stages 1-3. In future, do you think music should continue to be a National Curriculum subject?

Same as for Art, really! It's a part of being a person...but allow pupil choice, from a certain point on...

 

 

SECTION H: HOW CHILDREN LEARN (Q29)

The remit for the review makes clear that the National Curriculum should express clearly the progression that pupils should make in each subject, and that this progression should be informed by the best available evidence on how children learn. For example, at what age should particular concepts first be introduced, how should these be sequenced in the most appropriate age-related order to develop deep learning and how should this evidence be best reflected in Programmes of Study for particular subjects?

Our aim in seeking this information is to help inform the sequencing of knowledge at different ages with the National Curriculum Programmes of Study. We would welcome all evidence relevant to this issue, whether broadly based or focused on particular knowledge and concepts within a given subject (eg understanding ratio and proportion within mathematics).

This section is about your views on the best available evidence on how children acquire particular knowledge, and understanding of concepts and principles, to inform the development of the National Curriculum. Your views may be based on particular research, expertise or from your own experiences of teaching.

Have you considered getting some thoughts from someone like Sir Ken Robinson on this?

There is SO MUCH to say in response to this that I think I am going to have to come back to it on its own, in a future post.

SECTION I: TRANSITION (Q30- Q33)

The review will be taking into account the emerging conclusions of the review of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) by Dame Clare Tickell to ensure a smooth transition from the EYFS to Key Stage 1. The review will also take into account the need for the National Curriculum to be embodied readily into GCSE subject criteria and support the effective operation of public examinations at the end of compulsory schooling.  The development of new GCSE criteria themselves is outside the scope of this review.

This section is about your views on how to best take into account the key transition periods in schooling in developing the new National Curriculum.

What are the most important factors to consider in developing the National Curriculum for Key Stage 4 to ensure the effective operation of GCSE and other public examinations?

Can we assume that the GCSE itself will be subject to review in the same way as the current National Curriculum, as GCSEs are themselves unfit for purpose, and at the root of many of the system's problems?

SECTION J: IMPLEMENTATION (Q34 - Q35)

This section is about what arrangements need to be put in place to support the successful implementation of the new National Curriculum in schools. For example, this may relate to teacher training, inspection, statutory assessment, support and guidance for schools, etc.

Hmmm: teacher-training by teachers, alongside all their other duties and responsibilities... Can we assume (a) improved pay and conditions, (b) reduced teaching workloads commensurate with the increase in overall working time, (c) training for those taking on the crucial job of ensuring that future generations of the UK's young people are taught by teachers who know what they are doing!

Assessment: of course access to attainment data, accountability and so on are important, and all that - but as the man said, "you don't fatten a pig by weighing it"...

 

As explained in Section C, the Government's intention is that the implementation of the new National Curriculum should be phased in, with new Programmes of Study for English, mathematics, science and physical education published in autumn 2012 for first teaching in schools from September 2013, and those for other subjects published in autumn 2013 for first teaching in schools from 2014.  The remit for the review includes consideration of what further phasing may be necessary (for example whether the new Programmes of Study should be introduced in all key stages/year groups simultaneously, or over a period of time).

Let's wait and see what we all have to say, first, eh? Maybe we will provide so much evidence that you will have to readjust your timeframe entirely... 

 

Finally, please let us have your views on responding to this Call for Evidence (eg the number and type of questions, was it easy to find, understand, complete etc.)

As previously stated: too rigid to allow for real breadth of contribution. By definition, the ideological starting-point of the questioning also places limitations on the outcome.

 Not to mention the make-up of the Committee which will be "reviewing" these responses to the "Call for Evidence". Is there no place for ordinary teachers? Who chose the panel?

I await the outcome of the consultation process with real interest...

...although I do believe that of itself, it will have very little effect upon how I do my job - because I will continue to do that to the best of my ability, by daily assessing how I improve the learning of my pupils, and trying to come up with fresh ways of doing so, in collaboration with members of my own Department, other colleagues in my school and other local schools, and via my global PLN.

I will, however, do my best to keep an open mind. All I would ask of you, Mr Gove and the members of the Committee, is to do the same. Even if that means admitting that the results of the consultation process require you to eat your words...

 

 

 

 

a mere 104 days later...

Dear Mr/Ms Bellars,

Thank you for your email of 3 December to the Secretary of State and Deputy Prime Minister, regarding the importance of language teaching in schools.  As a member of the Secretary of State’s correspondence team, I have been asked to reply and I apologise for the delay in doing so. The Coalition Government is fully committed to the teaching of languages in schools, not only for its social and economic benefits, but also because learning a language helps pupils to understand the different cultures of people around the world.  In his speech at the Westminster Academy on 6 September 2010, the Secretary of State announced that learning a modern or ancient language would be one of the core subjects of the new English Baccalaureate, along with English, mathematics, science and a humanities subject.  Further detail was included in the White Paper The Importance of Teaching, published on 24 November 2010 and we expect that this will lead to an increase in take up of languages at Key Stage 4.    We know that primary school teachers and others have worked very hard over the last few years to stimulate an early interest in language learning, and a recent NfER study showed that 92 per cent of primary schools are now teaching foreign languages within class time at Key Stage 2.  The Government believes that learning a language at primary school can inspire children with a love of languages that will stay with them throughout their secondary education and beyond.  Given the importance of language learning, and the benefits of an early start, Ministers expect that the majority of primary schools that are already teaching languages will continue to do so. On 7 June 2010, the Minister of State for Schools announced that we would be carrying out a review of the National Curriculum to return it to its original purpose - a core national entitlement organised around subject disciplines. The review will consider the place of languages within the National Curriculum in both primary and secondary schools, and will ensure that our core curriculum can compare with those of the highest performing countries around the world.  In designing the new curriculum, we plan to consult a wide range of academics, teachers and others with an interest in what is taught in schools.  More details about how to contribute to the review will be announced shortly via our website at http://www.education.gov.uk/, and I hope that you will feel able to respond.

Yours sincerely, Kate Jarrett  Correspondence Team www.education.gov.uk    Your correspondence has been allocated the reference number 2010/0102172. To contact the Department for Education, please visitwww.education.gov.uk/contactus

The original of this email was scanned for viruses by the Government Secure Intranet virus scanning service supplied by Cable&Wireless Worldwide in partnership with MessageLabs. (CCTM Certificate Number 2009/09/0052.) On leaving the GSi this email was certified virus free.
Communications via the GSi may be automatically logged, monitored and/or recorded for legal purposes.

Reply

Forward

Your message has been sent.

Reply

Alex Bellars  to alex.bellars, Unmonitored.AC.

show details 10:26 AM (3 minutes ago)

Dear Kate,

Thanks for the reply. You will note that it has not taken me 104 days to respond to your email. May I question the wisdom of the Deputy Prime Minister having a cyber-presence if his correspondence team is not adequately-resourced enough to maintain it for him?

I will indeed be visiting the site below in order to contribute to the debate, as I feel that we are in danger of embarking upon a potentially disastrous, ideologically-led path which will in fact put our education system BACK forty or more years, rather than moving ahead into the 21st century.

Alex Bellars

 

Edmodo II - The Colleagues Strike Back...

I am blogging the start of what could turn out to be quite an interesting exchange between me and the Head of Maths here at Ballard. I will preface this by saying that I have a lot of respect for Will - just in case that is not apparent!

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

Thanks, Will. Allow me to tackle your email point-by-point:

 

If 6th forms decided to make it compulsory then so be it. > The latest thought is that students will need a language to access Higher Ed / get extra points towards Higher Ed for studying a range of subjects to include Eng, Ma, Sci, 1 Humanity and 1 MFL... http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/7982716/English-Baccalaureate-to-combat-drop-in-academic-GCSEs.html

 

As yet, I haven't heard an argument that makes me think it is imperative that we keep languages as compulsory. > Don’t get me started! I will happily provide you with 700! www.llas.ac.uk/700reasons

 

I'm far from against languages and I agree that linguistic skills open many doors but I feel perhaps more often socially than professionally. > Try this article written by the (multilingual) German Ambassador to London: http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/cultural-services/articles/learn-language.html

 

Unless pupils are going on to study at degree level. > Or, if I get my way, we bin the National Curriculum, which is not fit for purpose, and start again with a range of qualifications designed to fit with (a) our pupils’ needs and (b) the future

 

Apart from that, I totally agree with you... ;-)

 

Thanks for responding. I would rather have 100 people arguing with me than 0 responses from gripers who don’t stand up for what they think.

 

Alex

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Will Shaylor [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: 15 November 2010 21:06
To: Alex Bellars
Subject: RE: Tweet forwarded by @bellaale

 

Hi Alex,

 

Thanks for the demo of edmodo this afternoon - it looked pretty good. Not sure I'll get round to using it though unless it takes the place of sharepoint - or can be used effectively in conjunction with sharepoint. I've spent a fair bit of time sprucing up the sharepoint site and feel I can use it pretty effectively to share things with pupils - although currently they still can't access it from home! I can see the advantages of edmodo but I also feel it's another pull into the on line social interaction world - one which I'm not sure that I necessarily want to encourage.

Thanks also for your link to the tweets last month. I did start writing a response but decided not to send it but it's been sitting in my drafts box and I'm doing a clear out so here you go! :o)

If 6th forms decided to make it compulsory then so be it. But as yet, I haven't heard an argument that makes me think it is imperative that we keep languages as compulsory. I'm far from against languages and I agree that linguistic skills open many doors but I feel perhaps more often socially than professionally. Unless pupils are going on to study at degree level.

I know - I sound like a right miserable git! :o)

See you in the morning,

Will

 

________________________________________

From: Alex Bellars [[email protected]]

Sent: 21 October 2010 08:53

To: Will Shaylor

Cc: Alex Bellars

Subject: Tweet forwarded by @bellaale

 

blagona: No language GCSE means no sixth-form place, say top schools - Education News, Education - The Inde.. http://ind.pn/9vY24l

 

Original Tweet: http://twitter.com/blagona/statuses/27075208237

 

 

Sent via TweetDeck (www.tweetdeck.com)

 

Edmodo

My Powerpoint to brief Heads of Department and SMT on what Edmodo does. Then, after advice from José Picardo amongst others, I will let them decide for themselves whether or not they want to make their lives 100% easier or not...

Download Edmodo - what does it do

my non-presentation at MFL Show & Tell Oldham

I had the huge and slightly nerve-wracking honour of being asked to make a short presentation on the topic of my choice at Saturday's MFLSAT (#mflsat on Twitter if you want to check the hugely-valuable back channel).

Hopefully (I think!) video will emerge of my ACTUAL preso, which I did on "non-web classroom tools", being the irritatingly divergent individual I am. 

I did however have something else up my sleeve, which I did NOT present, as time was a little short. It is a development of an idea of Thomas Reimann and Hanja Neumann, whose BRILLIANT Philip Allan Updates GCSE Conferences I have taken my Y10 and Y11 German students to over the last 5 years or so. Here it is, in Powerpoint form (with a little pic of my classroom wall for good measure):

Download Perfekt!

A quick word of thanks to all the other presenters (even the ones that @joedale and I missed thanks to the M6/M62!), and especially to Isabelle Jones and her team for the amazing welcome - and to Nigel Yeo for his wonderful hospitality. Which will be reciprocated at any time if you guys are "dahn Sahf"!

 

Email to Nick Clegg re MFL Teaching and Learning in the UK

 

Dear Mr Clegg,

Firstly, thank you for taking the time to read this email. I appreciate that you must be an extremely busy man at the best of times...and also that the past few weeks have not exactly been the best of times, in many ways. I congratulate you on your achievements in gaining a place at the "top table". I would also like to add that I voted for your party in the General Election - as I have done since I was of voting age, indeed.

However, I do have my concerns over the direction that you have taken since the election. It appears to me, as I imagine it does to others, that your Conservative partners within the Coalition have steered a more-or-less predictable course, whereas the impression one has is that the Liberal Democrats have caved in, to a greater or lesser extent. 

I am not, however, going to harangue you any more than this concerning the u-turns made since the Election. There IS a huge deficit to fill, and the political landscape has, of course, changed enormously in the last few weeks; and as you said on your "Desert Island Discs" programme, to a certain extent we all need to be patient and wait for everything to "settle down". But this is not an easy message to sell to students facing a hike in tuition fees, parents with a cut in child benefit to deal with, people suffering housing benefit reductions, and so on... Good luck with all that!

Anyway - my focus is actually on something entirely different. In the recent GCSE results, French dropped out of the top 10 subjects by entry for the first time since the introduction of the National Curriculum. My MFL colleagues across the country and I were dismayed by the response in the media and on the BBC. Many of us were listening to Radio 4's "You and Yours" Languages Phone-in that week (mystifyingly without a single teacher on the panel of experts), and were so concerned by what we heard that we organised a special FlashMeeting (a kind of web-conference, which a group of us conduct on a regular basis). We dubbed it "myth-busters", and sent a copy of the FlashMeeting minutes and recording to the BBC, via our "leader", Joe Dale - an internationally-reputed consultant in MFL and ICT. As far as I am aware, no response has been forthcoming thus far.

During the FlashMeeting, someone remarked rather glibly that you, as a multilingual MP, might be a good ally to try and enlist in our campaign. I thought: "Why not, actually?", and have sent you at least three messages every day since then - one in French, one in German and one in English. That makes 27 days so far, I believe. Others have joined in and sent Spanish and (at least one!) Dutch message. I have used your Facebook page and your Twitter account as my access points so far - but until today had not had any response. Today, the member of your staff who oversees your Facebook wall replied to me, suggesting I contact you via this address.

I am not going to harp on endlessly about how long it has taken to get a response. (Incidentally, may I say that the content of some of the messages left for you on your Wall is revolting, and I hope you will not lose too much sleep over the less savoury material you receive!) 

Rather I would like to get straight to our reason for wanting to contact you in the first place: our concern over the perceived lack of support within the Government and the "Establishment-At-Large" (whatever that is) for language learning and teaching.

Our very real concern is that the generation now under our tutelage will be the one that loses the ability to converse with our fellow Europeans (and indeed other nations further afield) on the level playing field one strides onto by being able to use their language(s), rather than blithely and mistakenly assuming that English will be spoken universally.

As a speaker of 5 languages (I admit to feeling slightly inadequate with my fluency in just 3!), you must surely share our concerns. Please respond to indicate how we might work with you to move forward in this area, before it is too late. Already university departments are closing, placing the future of such crucial subjects as German in real jeopardy. 

I can be contacted at the above email addresses. On Twitter I am @bellaale, and a "member" of a nebulous group of similarly-minded MFL teachers and consultants who have started calling ourselves the #mfltwitterati. I am utterly sincere in my wish to work WITH you and the Coalition in achieving what I hope to be common goals, and look forward to receiving your response.

Best regards,

Alex Bellars

French and German teacher

(Ballard School, New Milton)

 

Songs in French (and their lyrics)

Chansons françaises

2009-10 French Exchange

Am just winding down now at the end of the final day of 2009-10's edition of our triangular Ballard-Highcliffe School-Collège Trémolières. Although this is only our 4th year on the programme, it already feels like a fixture in the school calendar. I know I am biased, but the MFL Department is definitely the highest profile department in the school right now - what with the European Language Olympics still fresh in the memory, plus the "I love Languages - do you?" badges, our own Ballard "Star of the Term" badges and "Star of the Week certificates"...all of this on the basis of some bloody good teaching and (not that they are the be-all-and-end-all) GCSE results over the last few years...

But I digress! (No! Never! ;) The French Exchange is the centre-piece of French at Ballard (and with the advent of our new Germanist HoD, we will be adding a German one next summer!) From uncertain beginnings, where I had to prowl the car-park at pick-up time twisting pupil and parents' arms to get a measly 5 participants, we this year had 10, plus 6 extra host families who did not go to France in June but gladly received French students this week. And next year we have 12 confirmed applicants, plus at least 6 or 7 more possibles! We may be in the position of being able to "cherry-pick" our best students!

This year's vintage has been very special, again - you only had to watch the kids tear-stained faces at 6 a.m. today as they hugged their new best friends and had to be "rugby-scrummed" onto the coach for Poole... They have been a very "soudé" group, coping well with an unfortunate incident early this week which resulted in the repatriation of one of the French students, and coming out even more "together".

And the way that students, parents, younger siblings and staff all joined to celebrate the last night at New Milton Cricket Club (thanks for use of your clubroom, NMCC!) was a sign that this Exchange is going from strength to strength. Roll on next June!