Lucille
Appearances
The Planet Reigate Podcast
43: A little bit of France in Redhill, Reigate’s rogue MPs from history… and more
So we've got all the primary school curriculum and then we have also two classes above. So one is for our secondary age children and in this class they study more about a little bit of literature and some themes. Because they've studied, like for example, the Second World War on an English point of view in the English school,
The Planet Reigate Podcast
43: A little bit of France in Redhill, Reigate’s rogue MPs from history… and more
but we want them as well to know what it was in France, because it was not the same situation. Bonjour. Where we have the secondary school children.
The Planet Reigate Podcast
43: A little bit of France in Redhill, Reigate’s rogue MPs from history… and more
Yes, exactly. So we tend to also have other ways to study because we want them to enjoy coming. So they need lots of different ways. We tend to obviously have some lessons when it's February about the crepe. Pancake Day. This is very important. But in January, we also have La Galette. So it is mainly food, I must say, as everybody knows about France.
The Planet Reigate Podcast
43: A little bit of France in Redhill, Reigate’s rogue MPs from history… and more
But we also do some books where we study Paris and the monuments of Paris. We also do the regions of France for the children to know a little bit more. And it's a lot about researching your family as well.
The Planet Reigate Podcast
43: A little bit of France in Redhill, Reigate’s rogue MPs from history… and more
Yes, exactly. So these children are preparing for an exam. This exam is to certify their level in French. So this is because these children are now in A-level. We are not preparing children for GCSEs or A-level because the English school does that very well. What we're preparing the children for is French exams that certify their French level.
The Planet Reigate Podcast
43: A little bit of France in Redhill, Reigate’s rogue MPs from history… and more
So if they want to go and study at university in France, then they've got this exam and then they can go.
The Planet Reigate Podcast
43: A little bit of France in Redhill, Reigate’s rogue MPs from history… and more
Most of the teachers here and all the children that are coming to this school, it's just the French community because there are so many French people around you.
The Planet Reigate Podcast
43: A little bit of France in Redhill, Reigate’s rogue MPs from history… and more
It's Reigate, Redhill, Dorking. We have also people coming from Guildford, from Orsham, from Crawley. A big community in the Surrey. So let's find out about Sol.
The Planet Reigate Podcast
43: A little bit of France in Redhill, Reigate’s rogue MPs from history… and more
Alors Sol, le monsieur il va te poser des questions en anglais et tu vas répondre en anglais aussi, ça te va?
The Planet Reigate Podcast
43: A little bit of France in Redhill, Reigate’s rogue MPs from history… and more
Bonjour. So this is Sol and this is Peter.
The Planet Reigate Podcast
43: A little bit of France in Redhill, Reigate’s rogue MPs from history… and more
Yeah, exactly. So we want to include everyone, everyone who's curious about languages. So we've got holiday camps where we speak French, but also English, obviously, to include everyone. We have one in the summer, but we also do it during the after holidays in general. And we do lots of activities. It's not learning. So we do lots of activities, arts and crafts, upcycling.
The Planet Reigate Podcast
43: A little bit of France in Redhill, Reigate’s rogue MPs from history… and more
We do lots of sporty games, gardening or some cooking. And we tend to do a theme for each camp. So, well, the summer one will be the Olympics, obviously, because it will be the Olympics in Paris. So what a better theme for us during the summer holidays.
The Planet Reigate Podcast
43: A little bit of France in Redhill, Reigate’s rogue MPs from history… and more
They can just contact me on my email at lucille-école-rigate.co.uk or on our website, we are La Petite École de Rigate. If you look into Google, you will find us straight away.
The Planet Reigate Podcast
43: A little bit of France in Redhill, Reigate’s rogue MPs from history… and more
saturday french school with all the kids coming so all these kids are bilingual children so they have at least one parent in their family talking to them in french and so they're coming for their french lessons every saturday afternoon that's quite tough isn't it they've been at school all week and suddenly they're sitting in the classroom again on a saturday afternoon
The Planet Reigate Podcast
43: A little bit of France in Redhill, Reigate’s rogue MPs from history… and more
But they are doing it and it's just fun. We try to make the lessons as fun as possible. We want them to enjoy the language. We want them to be curious about languages in general. And the thing is, we also want them to learn a little bit about the culture as well. And they come to have fun, to meet their friends. It is cool, but it's a fun school.
The Planet Reigate Podcast
43: A little bit of France in Redhill, Reigate’s rogue MPs from history… and more
So behind 1P and 1EL, we have classes that are year one and year two equivalent in England. But in France, what we do in this class is the children learn to read in French, which is obviously, there's lots of things that they already know, but then they need to know all this weird stuff we do in France, you know, and the children need to learn that.
The Planet Reigate Podcast
43: A little bit of France in Redhill, Reigate’s rogue MPs from history… and more
And that's the main objective of these two classes.
The Planet Reigate Podcast
43: A little bit of France in Redhill, Reigate’s rogue MPs from history… and more
Yes, they are five years old and six years old in these classes, yes. We do the full primary curriculum. So we'll go on the tour and I'll show you. So we use all the classes in RECOMMEND. We have three years old coming to school, so yes, it is a bit earlier than the classic English school, but we have three years old coming just to have fun, to play and to develop their language.
The Planet Reigate Podcast
43: A little bit of France in Redhill, Reigate’s rogue MPs from history… and more
Here we've got all these little ones. So we start the lesson just by playing and then we tend to do a theme for them to develop their vocabulary.
The Planet Reigate Podcast
43: A little bit of France in Redhill, Reigate’s rogue MPs from history… and more
Not completely, because lots of the kids would naturally speak in English because they have much more vocabulary in English. After a term, sometimes the first word that comes to their mind will be in French. So to speak in French is a very big step. And also express a full sentence in French is a very big step. OK, so then we have another class over here. Seven years old.
The Planet Reigate Podcast
43: A little bit of France in Redhill, Reigate’s rogue MPs from history… and more
They are starting to learn grammar in this class.
The Planet Reigate Podcast
43: A little bit of France in Redhill, Reigate’s rogue MPs from history… and more
Exactly. So we've seen with the four years old, we really want them to start speaking in French. But then we learn to read and now we also add to that the grammar and the conjugation that is quite difficult in France. And I know lots of our listeners might have studied French and know that the grammar is complicated.
The Planet Reigate Podcast
43: A little bit of France in Redhill, Reigate’s rogue MPs from history… and more
Well, it's all these tenses we've got for the verbs. So this is a lot to learn for the kids.
The Planet Reigate Podcast
43: A little bit of France in Redhill, Reigate’s rogue MPs from history… and more
And it is something that the children struggle with.
The Planet Reigate Podcast
43: A little bit of France in Redhill, Reigate’s rogue MPs from history… and more
So some of them speak Spanish, some speak Korean as well, some speak Polish, German, Chinese.
The Planet Reigate Podcast
43: A little bit of France in Redhill, Reigate’s rogue MPs from history… and more
Yes, exactly. Some of these families have different parents that have different culture behind them both, and they're living in England, so that's why there's at least three languages at home.
The Planet Reigate Podcast
43: A little bit of France in Redhill, Reigate’s rogue MPs from history… and more
I wouldn't think so. I think Spanish is now a language that is very spoken. And it's also it seems a bit easier for lots of learners. And it's very attractive as well because you can travel with the Spanish. If you speak English and Spanish, you can travel a lot. So for all these kids, it's a massive advantage to be bilingual already with French and English.
The Planet Reigate Podcast
43: A little bit of France in Redhill, Reigate’s rogue MPs from history… and more
It's already so much for their future and their career later on. If you start when you're young, you just learn naturally. Let me... open the door so we are here in one of the other classes so they are just doing their homework now we are disturbing them they're just looking at us so we might have to be quick in this class