Parlez Vous Rugby? At Christ College, they do!

 

Two Year-10 pupils from Christ College have been selected to travel to Paris with a member of staff to assist in the planning and delivering of the rugby festival.

 

Greg Gannon and Alice O’Riordan were chosen for their outstanding leadership skills developed in PE

lessons as well as their French Linguistic abilities.

 

Greg said “Visiting France during the World Cup will let me see a world sporting event in a different society, and engage other young people through sport—I can’t wait!”
 

Alice says “I’m really looking forward to using language and leadership skills to help French students learn the sport of rugby, as well as experiencing French society first hand.”

 

The festival is part of a project called Parlez-vous rugby, which was launched in October 2006 by the British Council and the French Ministry of Education with support from HSBC.  It links 34 schools in the UK, France and Ireland, and all have worked on joint projects such as designing rugby strip or producing a bi-lingual rugby DVD.

 

Christ College has already hosted their French counterparts, and shared good practice and ideas to form a positive link between the two countries. The Festival project further enhances the excellent leadership courses already in place at Christ College, which already hosts the Primary Schools Festival annually, with over 150 participants from local primary schools. In preparation for the festival, all the pupils will spend a week in Paris working together on planning the festival and developing their teamwork, leadership and language skills.

 

PE Teacher Dean Ackland will be accompanying Greg and Alice on this adventure of lifetime, and has helped increase the number of students taking leadership awards over several years: “It will be an exciting trip, and it’s great to see two of our students having the opportunity to work on the European stage. From a personal point of view, it will be interesting to see how our French counterparts deliver leadership courses compared to us, and of course, see some rugby!”

 

The French primary schools involved come from disadvantaged areas in the suburbs of Paris.  The idea is to demonstrate that rugby is a game for both boys and girls of all ages and abilities.  With 20 teams representing each of the 20 participating countries, competition is expected to be fierce, as in the world cup itself.  Prior to the event, the primary school pupils will research the country that they represent, such as learning all about the origins of the Haka from New Zealand.

 

At the end of the day, there will be a prize-giving ceremony with prizes awarded by Rugby World Cup players and VIP guests such as Xavier Darcos, the French Minister of Education, Sir Peter Westmacott, British Ambassador to France and Anne Anderson, Irish Ambassador to France.

This story was posted on 28th September 2007