Montpellier Homestay Trip

Each year, students studying for their French GCSE examinations travel to France for a week of immersive education. Staying with host families, they are able to experience French culture first-hand and put their developing language knowledge to the test.

Below Stephanie (10B) has written a review of her week away:

"Last week, 17 of us went on the homestay trip to Montpellier as part of GCSE French. We set off early in the morning by bus and plane to arrive at Montpellier in time for a guided tour of the main attractions of the city. Montpellier is a lovely city with lots to see and do!

Later that day, our host families met us, and we walked home. I have to admit, I was a bit nervous of what they would be like, if they would be nice, and what sort of food they would feed us, but straight away I felt at ease – they were really friendly, very welcoming and the food was great! As I was staying with two friends as well, it was really fun and relaxing at home, and our hosts made sure that we were happy and comfortable all the time we were there.

From Tuesday to Thursday in the morning we had French lessons (tailored to our ability), and our teacher was very nice, and taught us well. While they were ‘lessons’, on multiple occasions we left the classroom as a group to practise our French in the real world, or even just to have fun around the city, and at that point, it didn’t even feel like a lesson anymore! After school each day, we would go to the bakery and get our lunch, including a baguette, dessert and a drink. It was all delicious.

Then in the afternoon each day, we would do an activity. On Tuesday, we played pétanque, which was great fun! After playing pétanque, we visited a shopping centre near to ‘la place de la comédie’. We got set many different tasks to test our French and team work skills such as ‘find the most French thing you can find’ or ‘re-enact a statue’ and we were in teams competing against each other for a prize. On Wednesday afternoon, we went bowling, which we all enjoyed – especially when Miss Ganzhorn and Miss Brown got very competitive towards the end. Afterwards, we had some free time to spend in a huge shopping centre.

Thursday was beach day. We spent the afternoon at the beach in wonderful weather, swimming in the sea, playing football on the beach and just generally relaxing. It was a great atmosphere, and in many people’s opinion (including mine!) this was the best activity of the whole trip.

Merci beaucoup to Miss Ganzhorn and Miss Brown for making this trip so great and memorable!"

We echo Stephanie's thanks to the staff who accompanied the trip and would like to add our own thanks to the students who represented our school so beautifully during their stay.