Pupils from the International School — Porches have been on the move recently. Firstly, years four, five and six visited Badoca Park near Sines, then the students in year 7 that are studying French in the International Section visited their pen friends in the Lycée Français Charles Lepierre in Lisbon. Lucy Hurst, from year six, describes her trip to Badoca Park.
School Trip to Badoca Park – Sines
School years four, five and six visited Badoca Park, near Sines. When we all arrived at school we had registration. The teachers put us in pairs and we went in the bus and managed to set off at 9:30am.
Our first stop was about half way through the journey. The bus driver pulled over and everyone got out his or her mid-morning snacks. After about 15 minutes the teachers rounded everyone up and put us all on the bus. We had a little bit of trouble getting there because the bus driver missed the sign, but we got there in the end.
We arrived at 12:30pm and parked the bus in the large car park, along with lots of other buses, which went there for the same reason that the classes of the International School had decided to go.
Once we got out of the bus we queued up to get in. A few minutes later we were inside Badoca Park and a lady called Sylvia invited us to have our picture taken in a safari truck. It was static, but it had an incredible background – a big billboard with a picture of all of the animals in the safari park running freely in the forests.
When our pictures had been taken we went and sat at the picnic tables and ate our lunch. Once we had eaten we were called up to get on the safari truck. The man made sure we were all sat down and then he told the driver we were ready to go into the forests and view all the animals. The first animal we saw was the deer.The man told us that we could tell how old it was by the amount of spots on its back. We saw lots of deer along the trail. Next, we saw a giraffe, but we only saw one giraffe because the other one had a sore shoulder and had to be put inside its house. The man gave us little biscuits so that we could feed the giraffe and we all got one biscuit each. The man told us that the giraffe ate a certain kind of tree because it had something which was good for the animal inside, and the giraffe liked it, so it got all the nutrition it needed.
Once we had fed the giraffe we drove on and saw what looked like a type of buffalo, but it wasn’t, it was a rare animal. The man, Helda, led us on once he had explained a little bit about the animal. Nearly every time we stopped we saw what looked like an ostrich, but wasn’t. We were told not to touch it, because it bites. We saw one with some little babies, which were new born. Helda told us that the female laid the egg and left them for the male to look after.
We all enjoyed the trip and overall everyone wanted to visit the park again. Most people said they were tired the next day.
Bonjour Lisbon
In all 13 students in year seven who are studying French as a foreign language in the International Section of the school visited their pen friends in the Lycée Français Charles Lepierre in Lisbon recently. Throughout the school year, the students involved had exchanged letters about themselves and what they like doing.
The International School students had a busy day in Lisbon. First, they met their younger friends in their classroom and were introduced to the Lycée Français institution. A tour of the building and a professional guided bus tour of Lisbon, with a commentary in French followed this. The children shared a picnic by the River Tagus and the tower of Belém before visiting the historic part of the town.
Back at the Lycée Français, students undertook a series of activities in French related to the guided tour, presented their photo album to their pen friends and asked their French partners questions. T-shirts and gifts were exchanged while the French class offered homemade cakes and refreshments to all.
Mrs. Green, French teacher at the International School and Madame Delesalle, primary school teacher in the Lycée Français Charles Lepierre, hope to repeat the experience next year and extend it to other year groups as this is such a nice way of making language learning a truly interactive exercise. A web page of the trip is available on www.internationalschoolofthealgarve.com
