Brooklands School Year 8 French residential

In July 50 Year 8 pupils from Brooklands School visited France for five days where they had the opportunity to practice their French and were involved in activities which enabled them to become acquainted with various aspects of France and French culture.

During the trip pupils visited Les Chocolats de Beussent where they saw the hand made chocolates being prepared and enjoyed a very tasty sample. Another visit was to a snail farm where they discovered how the snails were farmed and cared for. They had the opportunity to hold the snails, even putting them on their faces to see if the age defying slime worked, this was followed by a tasting session. The majority of children tried the snails and over half really enjoyed them.

Le Touquet market, Nausicaa Sea Centre, Bagatelle Parc and Boulogne-sur-Mer were also on the trip list.

The group also visited Etaples Military Cemetery where they walked amongst all the headstones looking at the history of the fallen soldiers. Pupils located the headstone for 32269 Private W Toms, Bedfordshire Regiment for fell on 11.08.1917 who was from North Street in Leighton Buzzard. They also used the books at the entrance of Etaples to look up surnames of the soldiers and locate their headstones.

Jo Harper, Trip Leader said "the children were fantastic and very eager to participate in all the activities, maybe a little less so in putting the snails on their faces, and thoroughly enjoyed everything about the trip. They were a pleasure to take to France and the children were enthusiastic and very well behaved. They have made lots of good memories of their visit."