Thanks to our successful bid for Erasmus Plus funding, 7 St Luke’s staff spent 6 days during the October half-term in and around Antibes on the beautiful Côte d’Azur, the Mediterranean coast in the South of France.
Mesdames Ahmed et McLucas, Messieurs Griffiths et Whitehead, Alasma, Sabena and Steve accompanied by Louis le Loup, the French class wolf puppet, attended 20 hours of classes at different levels to learn or improve their French and to learn and share language-teaching ideas with other primary teachers from Tower Hamlets, Durham and Lincolnshire.
We also participated in guided tours (mostly in French!) to learn information about Antibes, Nice and Grasse old towns and the famous Fragonard Perfume factory in Grasse. Some visited the Antibes Musée Picasso and the pretty hillside village of Gourdon for a stunning view of the Alps and the coast whilst others visited Monaco and Monte Carlo. Some of us managed to visit the early morning Marché Provençal. M. Griffiths and Mme McLucas even went swimming in the sea!
We posed with Louis le Loup for photos on the red carpet in front of the venue of the famous Cannes Film Festival and on the beach. We tried French food like moules frites (mussels and chips), escargots (snails), soupe aux poissons (fish soup), salad niçoise (a traditional Nice-style salad with tuna, anchovies, eggs, potatoes and French beans) croissants, pain au chocolat, sorbet and glace (ice-cream) and have many photos to share with the children as well as new French phrases.
This is the first of 2 staff professional development visits over 2 years funded by Erasmus Plus. We aim for 7 staff to be able to experience a similar visit during the 2019-20 academic year.
