Bonjour Pyrenees

We are a group of grade 3-6 students from Landsborough Primary School, which is part of the Pyrenees Cluster near Avoca in Victoria. We are involved in the Innovative Language Program in Clusters (ILPIC) initiative providing languages via video-conferencing technology. We are studying French with our teacher Valerie and her language assistant, Audrey from Ararat Community College.

We link up each week with the other schools in our cluster to learn French from a teacher who is based in Ararat.

I love participating in ILPIC because we get to learn French with other schools within our cluster. (Jonathan, Year 6)

During this semester we have noticed that our learning of French has grown considerably from where we started.  So far, we have learnt about colours, shapes, letters and greetings during our weekly French lessons. We have also practiced how to pronounce the words by repeating what our teacher said during the video-conferencing lessons.

I like French because I can learn a different language and in my life if I do go to France I know what everyone will be saying. (Isabella, Year 3)                                                                                                                                                                     

We love using the video-conferencing because we can work and learn with other students from our cluster and sometimes from other schools. We don’t have to travel to learn a language and if we didn’t have the video conferencing our school is too small to employ our own language teacher.

What I like about our French lessons is that we can interact with other students from within and also outside our cluster during the French lessons which is great for students like us who are from small schools.  (Blayde, Year 6)

I Like French because we learn NEW words every lesson and they make it fun by using video clips that we view on the video-conferencing machine.   (Drae, Year 5)

I enjoy doing French by video-conferencing because we get to do our lessons over a TV instead of them actually coming here which is a creative way of learning. (Indigo, Year 6)

We feel lucky to have a French teacher and assistant because many schools do not have access to qualified language teachers. Valerie and Audrey are very experienced and make it enjoyable because they use a variety of tools such as video clips, flash cards and creative worksheets. We undertake new learning every lesson and we learn how to correctly pronounce French words.

I like learning French by the video conferencing machine because I can learn within the comfort of my own classroom and learn with my classmates. (Karissa, Year 6)

We are already feeling the positive effect of our French program through our improved learning of simple French words and phrases in the comfort of our own classroom but with the involvement of a qualified teacher and other cluster students.

Support for LOTE Provision in 2012

The DEECD has released a number of support initiatives aimed at increasing the provision of LOTE within school throughout Victoria. The following are two of these initiatives:

* LOTE Start Up Grant Information 2012

* LOTE Teaching Scholarships 2012

 Au Revoir

Written by students at Landsborough Primary School

Photo  Some rights reserved by Dolarz

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