A group of 10 teachers form Norfolk (plus me - the only non-teacher in the group!) made the trip out to Toulouse in the early hours of Wednesday morning. We had 2 1/2 days of language training in Toulouse before travelling to stay with our host teachers. Once we had arrived and dropped our bags at the hotel (small and rather dated, but clean and friendly) we were off to the Place du Capitole to meet one of the French organisers and have the first of many excellent meals! Wednesday was a long day - after lunch we had a welcome meeting and an introduction to the French school system. While it was interesting, after having been up since 3 in the morning we were all starting to flag by then! Some of the French teachers then came to meet us for a meal in the evening.
Thursday and Friday were spent at l'IUFM - the French equivalent of a teacher training college. We were split into 2 groups for the course, beginners and confident. Our confident group was taken by the lovely Pierre who seemed to know everything about French history and spoke Occitan and Spanish as well as French. It was all very interesting although I do wish we had more opportunity to practise speaking - we did seem to listen to Pierre rather a lot! We did learn lots of lovely French songs though. Lunches at the college were 3 courses - eating lots featured rather heavily. After the course we had the opportunity to go shopping - I have bought rather a lot of books - and evenings involved more food.
Saturday morning was supposed to be at college, but as a group we decided we would prefer an outdoor lesson, so Pierre took us to a lovely museum. As some people were moving out to their hosts that afternoon, we all split up after the morning and I went off to a large covered market with one of the teachers. After more food and more shopping, we decided to embrace French culture and went to the cinema to watch Gerard Depardieu in 'Je n'ai rien oublié'.
I had arranged for Cécile (my host teacher) to pick me up on Sunday morning. She was also picking up another teacher, Sarah, as Sarah's host wasn't available until later in the day. We went to a market to buy food for lunch, then met up with some of Cécile's friends for a coffee, before going back to their house for lunch, which went on all afternoon! We then took Sarah to meet her host and, finally, got back to Cécile's house.
Monday was my first day in school - I was slightly nervous as Cécile wasn't going to be there (she works as an English teacher in lots of different schools), but the staff were all very welcoming and the children were all very curious! School started at 8.30am, so after a quick tour I went into CM1/CM2 - the equivalent of our year 5/6 - the class that we had been corresponding with. I had brought over letters and small gifts from my class so handed those out, which was useful to try and get to know the children's names! I observed a French grammar lesson and then a maths lesson after break. After a 2 hour lunch break, I visited CE1/CE2 (year 3/4) and observed comprehension and more maths. One of the teachers took me back to Cécile's house after school (4.30) and we then went to the cinema (les femmes du 6iéme étage - lovely film) before coming home to Toulouse sausage for supper - delicious!
Back to school on Tuesday and helping out Cécile in English lessons in the morning. The teachers took me out for lunch then I was in Maternelle (reception/year 1) for the afternoon where I helped make Easter bunnies for presents and we did lots of singing. After almost losing my phone on the way home (it fell out of my bag onto the pavement but luckily I checked my bag about 5 minutes later, realised it was gone and it was still on the pavement when I went back to look!), Cécile took me for a quick shopping trip round Montauban. Supper was Bréton gallettes and more wine!
French schools don't work on Wednesday's, so it was a day of sight-seeing. We started off by going to a museum in Montauban, then met up with the directrice for lunch. She then took us on a sight-seeing tour round the area - lots of lovely old villages and beautiful scenery.
Back to school on Thursday and started off in CP/GS (year 1/2). French children don't seem to really start reading and writing until they are around 6, so it was interesting to see what the younger children do in class to start on letter and word recognition. As well as French, there was some maths and a short PE lesson. After lunch I was back with Cécile for English lessons - the CM1/CM2 children started writing letters for me to bring back to England. With CE1/CE2, we went outside for songs and activities. In the evening, Cécile took me to a dance spectacle in Toulouse - it was modern ballet and although I found the first half a bit strange, the second half was fabulous!
Friday was my last day in school - I spent the morning in Maternelle again with more singing and stories. I was also given a lot of pictures to bring home! Back to CM2/CM1 in the afternoon to finish off letters to England. Everyone came to say goodbye at the end of the day and I had lots of hugs from the younger children (plus a box of chocolates from someone in CM1). I was sad to say goodbye - it was a lovely week and everyone was very welcoming and friendly.
Cécile's partner, Seb, cooked a lovely meal on Friday night and I managed to cram everything into my suitcase somehow. Thankfully my flight on Saturday wasn't too early!
So, what have I gained from my trip? The main thing is the confidence that my French is sufficient to manage by myself in France - once Cécile picked me up I spoke nothing but French for the whole week and people seemed to understand me! I also understood most of what was said to me - I may not have understood every word, but I could understand the gist of conversations and reply appropriately! I also have lots of ideas to bring back and share with my class to hopefully help the French lessons. I had a great trip and hope to continue my correspondence with the school and Cécile as it can only be a positive thing to have these contacts in France. The trip has been a really positive experience for me; while I was there I wasn't someone's mum or someone's wife, I was just me and I think it did me good to focus on myself for a short while.
