We returned on Friday after a great week in Paris and Ypres. This was a trip for the whole year group (yes all 24 of them!), so was cross curricular rather than being for one particular subject. In fact we could probably formalise this a bit more in future and add in the relevant ACfE outcomes. Over the week we managed to cover a bit of Physics (the workings of planes coming into land at Charles de Gaulle), Maths (discussion of how to measure Eiffel Tower), as well as Art (Louvre), RME (class had studied cathedrals before we went to Notre Dame), Sport (very popular visit to Stade de France - not sure that doesn’t also cover RME!) Not sure where Eurodisney fits into all this - just good day out!
After two nights in Paris we moved to Calais for the evening (more sport with Scotland beating France 7-0 in impromptu friendly on the beach). The next day we headed to Ypres - we started off the day at the fantastic interactive museum “In Flanders Fields” - highly recommended, S4 were really engaged with the exhibits. We had time to visit the Menin Gate and reactions were interesting, they were very shocked at the amount of names on the Menin Gate. Afterwards we headed to Hill 62 for a look at the trenches there - most have done war poetry in English and the history class had been looking at WW1 in preparation too.
Finally we headed to Tynecot and Langemark cemetaries. The class had prepared their own memorial services in RME. At Tynecot they played something by Cold Play (need to find out name) as they read out the names of the dead from the Mull War Memorials, the music then switched to “The Dark Island” by the Red Hot Chili Pipers and they read out their own thoughts and feelings, before laying a wreath and ending with a minute’s silence. We moved onto Langemark and this time I read the final paragraph of “All Quiet on the Western Front” first in English so the class would understand and then in German, they laid the wreath and we ended with another silence. Probably the most moving time of my teaching career.
The great thing about this trip was being able to prepare and deliver so many different areas of the curriculum - my colleagues were RME/English and Maths/Science, so between us we were able to cover at least some aspects of the curriculum with help from the notes others staff had sent with us. What we couldn’t do was answer some of the questions this highly inquisitive and enthusiastic group came up with - so my task tonight is to surf a bit and see if I can find out “who owns the Eiffel Tower?”
