French Department
Trips
We are also very keen to introduce girls to the pleasures of spending time in France. We run a day trip to France in the Upper III (Year 7) and a Study Visit to the Loire Valley is open to girls from the Upper IV (Year 9) and Lower V (Year 10). Girls combine a residential stay in one of France’s most beautiful areas with language classes taught by qualified native teachers. Both these events take place towards the end of the summer term.
Sixth Formers are encouraged to attend residential courses in France to improve their fluency. A wide variety of courses are available but most recently those in Montpellier , Nice and Thonon-les-Bains, on the shores of Lake Geneva, have been chosen. Students are also given details of possible work experience postings. Lower Sixth girls also have the opportunity of spending a long weekend in Paris attending an Economics Conference, a French Language seminar and seeing some of the sights. They are encouraged to speak French whenever possible.
The study of French in the Sixth Form at The Abbey aims to encourage positive attitudes to foreign language learning and to further intellectual and personal development by promoting learning and communication skills. It is generally accepted that fluency in a language other than one's own is a tremendous asset in modern society from both a social and professional point of view; what better reason therefore for learning French, one of the official European languages?
