PPLI Annual Report 2018 - Flipbook - Page 17
The exchange has been a great benefit to the school
we have such a broad range of extracurricular
activities and it's wonderful to have a particular
activity that students of language can really engage
with the language can learn to speak it, can learn the
culture of the other country by visiting the other
country and immersing themselves in another
family and then can share the experience with the
German students that come to visit us so it's been a
wonderful thing to have in our school.
(Diane Birnie, Principal)
My name is Allan Murphy I'm originally from Lucan, I
live in Hamburg or just north of Hamburg in Germany.
I'm offering the student the possibility to have an
internship in our company. They would be working for
three weeks and living with my wife and I.
(Allan Murphy, Alumni facilitating work experience)
So it came about as the result of a twinning between
Buncrana and Fréhel in Brittany and the twinning
committee decided it would be a good idea to have
some schools involved So Lycée Saint Charles from
Saint-Brieuc exchanged with ourselves and Scoil
Mhuire in Buncrana.
(Mark Spencer, French and Spanish teacher)
It's been a huge benefit to the school in terms of
engagement particularly with French because it
becomes a living language, they have to live the
language when they're out there, it forces them to
speak the language.
(John McGuinness, Deputy Principal)
It's a whole school community thing, the parents and
families actually host the children themselves. It's
just the whole discovery of a whole new culture as
well especially for rural children of this area they can
actually get out and see a different part of the world.
(Mark Spencer, French and Spanish teacher)
I think everyone should go and go to
a different country and get to know
other cultures and other languages,
it's a great experience.
(Student)
The pairing was unbelievable the
way they matched the children the
child we got was just unbelievable,
he was like my son's other half.
They were nervous when they were going at the start
but they nearly come back like different children. I
think they were proud of themselves that they had
actually travelled and went to another country and
they had stayed with a French family and they had
seen a real French school and they had seen the Eiffel
Tower and they spoke French.
(Elaine McGoldrick, French Teacher)
You go out and you actually see the country of the
language that you're learning and you see their
culture.
(Aideen Quinn, Parent)
(Student)
I still talk to my exchange partner, so
it's good to have that connection and
we help each other with German, we
help each other with English.
(Student)
I feel that by me as a teacher going
over to the country and speaking the
language I myself am learning more
and more, just as my students are.
(Colette Clarke, German teacher)
I think it gives you more confidence in speaking it
and that was definitely a big bonus.
(Student)
When you see what the students get from it it's one
hundred percent worth it.
(Elaine McGoldrick, French Teacher)
The connections people make it's the connections
you get for life.
(Mark Spencer, French and Spanish teacher)
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