There are very few things I miss from living in England.
Of course family and friends are greatly missed, but I miss my job more than I thought I would. Having trained as a Nursery Nurse after leaving school, I spent the last four years in England working at our local Primary school as a Teaching Assistant. The last three of which were spent in the Foundation stage (ages 3-5).
This is a job I loved.
While there I toyed with the idea of fulfilling my ambition to become a teacher. The forms were sent for and terms agreed with the Head teacher. Just at the point of sending them back, Richard was offered his present job and with it our chance to move to France. My teaching plans were put on the back burner again. Instead I took my HLTA ( Higher Level Teaching Assistant) qualification which only took three months as opposed to three years of teacher training.
A year ago, having lived in France for about six months, I had been chatting with Nathalie, Joe’s teacher at that time, when she asked me to go in and read a story to her class in English. This has since developed into weekly visits and the planning of lessons and sourcing resources. Another chat with a parent of one of Molly’s friends has lead to another regular visit into a school to help with English.
After a year of this, I felt it was time to take it further, perhaps make it more official. The school in Foussais-Payré approached me about three months ago to see if I would like to sit for “l’Habilitation en Langue Vivante”, an official qualification that recognises the candidate’s ability to teach a foreign language in primary schools. This comprises of an interview and a class observation. It is hoped that anyone who wishes to teach English in any primary school in France will have passed this.
In March I went along with Nathalie to the meeting where we would find out what exactly would be involved. Nathalie isn’t ready to take the habilitation yet, but came along anyway. Moral support was definitely needed by me!
Expecting to find a room full of English and a few French I was shocked to find just one other person – a French teacher who, like Nathalie, wasn’t ready to take it, but just wanted to see what standard of English she would need to reach. So that left me!
On 20th May I went for my interview with much trepidation. The English side of the interview, of course, held few concerns. I had to be able to understand a short conversation after listening to it twice, and to be able to give a précis of the information given. The second part was to read a short story, with understanding and good accent! No problems. The third part was to know about the country and some of its history and cultures. All good so far.
Then came the fourth, and for me, the most worrying part. I had to be able to talk about the teaching of English and the curriculum, in French! I know my French has improved but I am still at the point where, if someone talks to me too fast or with a different accent, I tend to freeze and my eyes glaze over. I had a real fear that I would fail this part. I had been told it was important to have a good understanding of French or I could not pass.
Half an hour later it was all over, nerves still intact. Luckily Franck Graveleau and Françoise Aujard had been kind and allowed some chat in English amongst the French. I could not believe I had actually been to an interview in French!
A week later I received the excellent news I had passed this part and gained my Habilitation Provisoire. The next part will be my class observation which will take place during the next school year.
I’ll keep you posted!!
Lisa
As I mentioned last week, Saturday saw the annual Paella Night in Foussais-Payre, organised by the school. Its another one of those occasions that really brings the school community together to help prepare for and produce a great nights entertainment.
We gladly volunteered to help get the room set up for the night. The teachers all work really hard at these events and it’s only fair that we help out where we can. Plus it would be a great opportunity to have more of a chat with some of the other parents there. We must keep practicing our french! So the whole family went along in the afternoon armed with scissors and selotape to transform the empty hall into a seaside extravaganza!
The afternoon was a frenzy of cutting, stapling and sticking with everyone pitching in to create a blue and white seaside ambience. The tables had candles in sea-shells and Lisa helped to make some little paper boats to sit alongside them. There were balloons to blow up and a fishing net to mount on the wall. There was even a full-sized sail from a windsurfer that took its place at the front of the hall. I had the slightly dangerous job of climbing onto the wobbly steps to secure said sail and to tie up the balloons. Luckily I escaped unscathed and without any broken bones – quite a result for me! 
It was a really good afternoon, topped off after a while by everyone retiring to the kitchen where those in charge of preparing the nights feast were cracking open the wine. Never ones to shy away from a chance to socialise over un peu du vin, we joined in and met some really great folks. Of course we were far too polite to refuse a second glass, and the sangria just had to be tried. And how could we risk incurring the wrath of the locals by not sampling the red wine too?
All in all a very pleasant afternoon. Luckily we had walked down to the hall so the walk stagger home again helped to sober us up
Well aware that we probably wouldn’t be eating any time before 11pm, and mindful of the fact that the wine would once again be flowing, we had something to eat while we watched Strictly Come Dancing. If only we knew how the disco was going to be later we could have taken notes….
The do started at 8.30, so of course we got there for 8.30 and of course we were virtually the first people there. One day we will learn…
There were 8 tables, each with people assigned to them. We were on the table closest the dance floor (they must have known…) with Nathalie & Thierry. Molly and Rosie were with us at the table, but Joe was able to have his meal early with the rest of the children on a special table at the front. This was very handy as it meant that he could eat with his friends before they all went off to another room for fun and games while the adults enjoyed the rest of the night in peace
With the kids safely off being entertained, we helped tidy away their tables and chairs and then it was time for the evening to kick off properly. The bar was open – more sangria anyone? – and the crowds gathered. We did feel a little out of it at first as we had arrived so early and established outselves at the table it felt odd to move and plant ourselves in the middle of the crowd at the bar just so we could try to join a conversation. We have come a long way in terms of being able to chat socially with people, but when in a crowd it is still really hard for us to keep up. So we hung back this time, slightly disappoiinted in ourselves, but promising that we would be more confident by the next event.
Our predictions proved correct as it was around 11pm by the time the food started appearing. We started with a lovely spicy onion soup, with croutons and cheese sprinkled on top. Delicious! This was followed by the main event – the paella. None of us had tried paella before, but we all like rice, chicken (apart from Lisa, being a veggie) and mussels. So it really wasn’t a surprise to find that we really liked it. The big prawns were a first, having only previously encountered them devoid of head, legs, tail etc. Nathalie gave me a quick lesson on how to eat them – essentially just pulling them to pieces to reveal the tasty meat in the middle. This turned out to be a rather messy task, falling under my “too much hard work for too little reward” heading of foods. But enjoyable all the same.
The whole thing was washed down with a very pleasant bottle of rosé, which once again confirmed our belief that drinking from really small glasses doesn’t make you drunk.
We could have had as much paella as we could eat I think – there was plenty left on our dish and extras were being offered around all the tables, without too many takers it seemed. Paella is very filling! After all this came a lovely traditional apple tart with a slab of cheese (om nom nom nom…). All topped off with a coffee.
Suberb value once again for €9 each adult and we can’t fault the organisation. Everyone chipped in to help in some way – serving. clearing plates, washing up…. A great community event and we really enjoyed the chance to sit and chat with people.
Once the tables were cleared the disco began in earnest.
We hadn’t experienced a french disco before and therefore were unsure what to expect in the way of music. As it turns out it was, shall we say, an ecclectic mix! It ranged from The quickstep to “Achy Breaky Heart”…from traditional accordian music to “Tainted Love”, with Billy Ray Cyrus and Soft Cell being just about the only 2 recognisable sounds out of 2 hours of music 80s-style euro-pop.
It seemed to hit all the right spots with the locals though as most seemed to have a well coreographed dance for pretty much every tune that came up. We had never seen anyone jiving, waltzing or line-dancing to so many different styles of music before. It was very entertaining!
We basically danced for the rest of the night. Well, by “we” I obviously mean Lisa, Joe and I. The girls, being the ages that they are, could not bring themsleves to get up and dance at all. Granted the music wasn’t really very inspiring for them, but they did look funny sitting there sith their arms folded and their best bored faces on all night Meanwhile we danced the night away with Nathalie, until we got to the point where the kids were just about asleep at around 1.30am. We wearlily dragged ourselves off the dancefloor and back home to bed for a big sleep and a long lay-in!
What a great day we had had. the afternoon had been an ideal way to meet some new people and for them to learn a bit more about these crazy english folks who keep turning up. And the evening was a huge success. We are now looking forward to the next event – we’d better get our line-dancing lessons booked!
Nope, this is not about the re-entry of the space shuttle, or the latest X-Factor contestant who has come back for another shot at 10 minutes of fame….
No, la rentrée is the start of school term, a time that elsewhere has no special name, but here is a huge national event. For the last few weeks, every shop in town has been advertising items for “La rentrée” at special prices. Everywhere you turn there have been bags, coats, shoes, pens, pencils, set-squares, pads, paper, folders…. all waiting for families to arrive with their lists of required items and to scoop them by the arm-full into their baskets. As it is generally the case that, certainly for secondary schools, pupils need to provide pretty much everything in terms of stationery, it is really a huge undertaking to get prepared.
We paid a visit to our local Leclerc last week to stock up. With the two girls both at college this year, it was a somewhat costly trip, with each subject often requiring a pack of paper, a folder, several dividers, certain pens and pencils etc. The poor kids lugging their bags into school on the first day all looked like they needed pack-horses to carry their equipment around for them. Fortunately at the girls’ school they have a desk where they sit for most of their lessons, so they can store most items in there.
As for the first day back, it was a staggered affair. On Tuesday Molly and Joe returned. It was a big day for Molly, starting college after the small and sheltered St. Antoine. She seemed quite happy about it, although you can never quite tell with Molly as she does tend to keep her feelings hidden. We arrived at the college for about 7:45am, and we could tell straight away that we were rather early. At least we weren’t the ONLY people there, but it was very quiet. As 8:00am came and went we started to wish we had re-read the letter about the arrangements. We had left Rosie and Joe at home and Joe had to be at school for 9, and, at this rate, we wouldn’t be back in time. One of the teachers came over and explained that they were actually starting at 9am today. Oops! So, Lisa drove back home to get joe ready and take him to school and I stayed with Molly. Not quite the relaxed morning we had in mind!
In the end, the bell rang and all the new pupils said their goodbyes to the attending parents and lined up in their groups. The tutor for each group came out to greet their pupils. Molly’s was one of the english teachers (i.e. she’s french but she teaches english) who seemed really nice. After going along the line of children and saying bonjour, they all trooped in and that was that! Molly seemed fine going in. She was with Melonie, another girl from her old class in St Antoine, so she already new someone which was good for her.
Back in Foussais, Lisa took Joe into school. By all accounts he ran off and started playing with his friends as if he had never been away, which was very encouraging. Everyone is so friendly at the school and were very pleased to see everyone back again. Coffee and brioche was on offer to welcome the parents and the classrooms had all been spruced up for the new term.
So, with 2 children safely deposited at school, Lisa picked me up and we returned home, hoping that all went well and the last 9 months of french immersion would have helped them start the new term with confidence.
And seemingly it did. Molly came out smiling and chatting about her day. Her tutor is very nice and everything went very well by the sounds of it. And Joe came out with his usual confidence, more than happy to be back and enjoying being with all his friends again. Definitely a good start!
Then we just had Rosie, who started today for half a day. Molly was due in for the morning too, so they both went in on the bus together. It was a real strain waking up at 6.30am again. We realised yesterday that, with the age differences being as they are, we will have to do this every day for at least the next 7 years. Not a good thought! But at least the girls got up and sorted without any fuss. Rosie was, we think, looking forward to being in cinqieme, a she will be allowed in the main playground (sixieme students have their own area) and will have the chance to mix with older children. As she should really be in the year above (we enrolled her into the year below to give her chance to get up-to-speed on her french) she has been with much younger girls and I think she missed the company of older teenagers. So we drove them down to the bus in the half-light of the morning. It is a bit depressing to think that it won’t get any lighter in the morning for another 6 months now 
. The bus came and off they went. 3 out of 3 delivered correctly!
At lunch time the girls came back and I think Rosie’s start was a success as well. She too seemed very happy with her day and, most importantly, she has a good timetable on Friday. It’s VERY important to have good things on a friday aparrently…
And so it begins – our first full school year in france. It has certainly been a different start to when we first arrived last December. Although the kids all coped admirably back then, they have all started this time with so much confidence and we feel very happy knowing that they are now in a position to be able to ask for help or explain their problems without getting upset due to a total lack of language.
Lets see what the rest of the term brings!
