Our Final Day in France

Welcome home, everyone! I hope you all had a good night's sleep and are having a lovely day with your families. 

Yesterday was a very busy day for us all; we waved goodbye to Parc D'Olhain and headed off to Vimy. 

On arriving a Vimy Ridge, we visited the stunning Canadian war memorial. We spent some time looking at the statues and reading the vast number of names of those who had died. We had a moment of silent reflection, then said a prayer for all of those who have died, or lost loved ones, in war.

The battlefield was fascinating- its craters and shell holes still tell the story of the war that was fought there one hundred years ago.

We then moved on to visit the trenches at Vimy. They have been preserved with some concrete now, replacing the sandbags, but the trenches are still a powerful sight. 

We were all able to see the conditions that the soldiers lived and fought in. We saw the firesteps and lookout points, and we were interested to see the zigzag formation that we had learned about earlier this year.

After Vimy, we headed to Boulogne to shop for our souvenirs, then on to Calais to catch our train home.

It was a wonderful week! We were very proud of you all- you represented St. Anthony's and your families brilliantly. Well done! 

Have a restful weekend and we will see you next week; au revoir! 

We're Heading Home!

We're on our way home! We've eaten breakfast and we're on the coach. First we'll stop at Vimy to see the World War One memorial and the trenches. Then we'll head to Boulogne for lunch and shopping before catching our train.

We can't wait to see you all this evening!

A Day at St. Vaast

What a busy day! This morning began with another delicious breakfast, looking out at the beautiful woodland here at Parc D'Olhain. We've even spotted a few rabbits bouncing around!

After breakfast, we set out in the coach for Bethune, to spend another exciting day with our new French friends. On arriving at the school, we had a quick play then visited our pen pals' classrooms.

It was wonderful to see their school lives and they showed us some of their work, as well as performing a song for us. It was called Liberte; a popular song based on a poem from World War Two, which has recently been re-released for charity.

Next, we visited the school's chapel- it had a fascinating 129-year history, it was even used as a hospital for British soldiers in WW1.

Soon it was lunchtime! We had a three-course lunch (!) in the school cafeteria with our pen pals, before heading back out into the sunshine to play in the playground. 

After lunch, St. John's and St. Clare's took turns to play fun team building games in the playground or to take a tour of Bethune.

On our tour, we saw a boulangerie, boucher, chocolatier, fromagerie, the town hall (l'hotel du ville), the famous bell tower from the Middle Ages and the spectacular church of St. Vaast.

After our tour, we had a quick snack and drink in the cafeteria at school, then went to the dchool's drama studio. The French children performed two short plays for us: one about the story of St. Vaast and the other about Bethune during WW1. 

At the end of this wonderful day, we said our goodbyes and told our pen pals that we would be seeing them soon- in June at St. Anthony's!

Now, we are back at the centre and everyone is having some quiet time before getting showered and ready for tonight's party, after dinner!

Another Wonderful Day!

Today has been full of fun! We had a hearty French breakfast, then excitedly met our pen pals. We have been writing and Skyping to them all year- so it was truly special to meet them in person.

Firstly, we went out orienteering in the woods. Parc D'Olhain is a beautiful setting, but the competition was fierce! We ran, sang and laughed until we were exhausted! The winning team were Equipe 12- well done!

Next, we had a lovely picnic with our pen pals, followed by another play on the spectacular action station.

In the afternoon, we were incredibly lucky to be offered the opportunity to have a session on the world's largest play nets! They were like enormous trampolines, with courts for football, volleyball and basketball, as well as slides and bouncy sections, all high up in the tree tops! Wow! The English and French children loved playing together on the nets (the adults loved it too!) in the forest.

On returning to the centre, we presented our pen pals with their gifts, which they loved! We sang some traditional French songs together, then waved our friends goodbye!

This evening, we had a lovely dinner of chicken or salmon. Now, we are working on our journals before our quiz night begins!

Greetings from France!

We have arrived in France! We have had a wonderful first day; the sun shone on us as we had a lovely picnic, then we visited the boulangerie. It was so much fun to make croissants and to learn about how they make traditional French bread.
After a short journey to Parc D'Olhain, we quickly unpacked before dinner! A delicious dinner of sea bass or sausages was followed by a lovely dessert.
After dinner, we played on the fabulous action station, then went for a walk to explore the grounds of the park.
We returned for showers and an evening reflection, with time to work on our journals and to say our prayers, then it was time for bed!
Goodnight! Bonne nuit!

Congratulations!

Source: http://sgpc.floriana.skola.edu.mt/category/assemblies/

Congratulations St. Clare's Class on a fantastic assembly! It was 'out of this world...!'

You all performed brilliantly today and we were very proud of you! We had lots of lovely comments from children, visitors and the other teachers; they all thought it was an excellent assembly and they were very impressed by your acting talents. Well done!

Thank you to all of the parents and carers who came to support the children. We hope you enjoyed it!

We will see you all next week, ready for our big adventure...

London Docklands

Today, we learned about the London Docklands and how the area has changed over time. We discovered the history of the Docklands and its ups and downs.

We made these Animoto films and Thinglink presentations, to teach others about what we now know:

https://www.thinglink.com/scene/787267975504723969

By Daniel and Jack G

Caoimhe and Erhun

Jess and Gracie: https://animoto.com/play/J3v2UWHzQaYCue81APKxUQ

Justin and Cesar: https://animoto.com/play/iNc111GORIC30I483rK5FQ

Owain and Harry: https://animoto.com/play/y21W0noZmLh3l1bqmNcyCg

Mina and Emily: https://animoto.com/play/Jf0i4zurFlCwrTBcnKzA1w

Stephanie and Maria: https://animoto.com/play/yh2qEmmQmDNGl2b4Rlj73w

Rory and Jack N: https://animoto.com/play/TUBl4Ws03xFaT5wX3ey3Uw

Darcy: https://animoto.com/play/MGnRUhlVMyjzizncF9Txpw

Sophia and Kenan: https://animoto.com/play/8GnWL4tTJUAMDwHctS9TCw

Jada and Elizabeth: https://animoto.com/play/emSk11JMsRVygbmOO08eUw

D and Christopher: https://animoto.com/play/gX7VjXemiSxcyK09xnibRw

Dulwich Picture Gallery!

On Friday, we had a lovely sunny morning at Dulwich Picture Gallery!

After a very pleasant stroll through the park, we arrived in time for a quick play in the gardens in the sunshine.

Our workshop was linked to our topic at school- so we were experimenting with ways to represent water and rivers.

We used mixed media (what did Jo tell us 'medium' meant in Art?) to create beautiful ink, wax and salt creations to show water and how it reflects light and the sky.

Next, we looked at some woodcut prints by Astrup to inspire our own block printing. We designed a natural landscape and carved it into polystyrene tiles, then printed them above our rivers, to create a mixed media landscape image.

We enjoyed using the printing press again and our skills at printing and painting have really improved!

Here are some great examples of finished pieces:

 Finally, we were able to have a quick walk through the special exhibition of Astrup's work and see some of his impressive woodcut prints, the woodcut blocks themselves and some spectacular landscape paintings.

Source: Dulwich Picture Gallery

Thames Explorer Workshop!

On Wednesday, Kate from the Thames Explorer Trust came to visit us at school. All of the children in Year 5 took part in a workshop, learning all about the Port of London.

It gave us a chance to show off what we already know about the River Thames and to learn lots of fascinating new information. We learned about shipping routes around the globe and how we import and export using the River Thames.

Kate brought along some HUGE maps for us to explore in the hall.

We also performed in some drama challenges and explored the history of the Thames from the Roman period, through its Victorian history, the closure of the Docks through to modern day London.