As part of our Big Skies week schedule, Year 8 travelled to Normandy. Here our Head of Modern Foreign Languages, Mrs Catherine Gibson, shares her trip diaries.

We had a very good journey with a lovely calm crossing and arrived at the Château de Chantereine at about 6.30pm. We were welcomed by our animateur Tom, who is great fun and making the girls laugh a lot!

We went straight to the dining room for our evening meal: cucumber salad starter, cordon bleu and pasta, ice cream for dessert and lots of baguette! After dinner Tom showed us to our rooms where we started to settle in. The rooms are all very clean and comfortable. We then had a quick gathering in the gardens before returning to the rooms for showers and bed.

Everyone is in very good spirits; any initial nerves on departure soon disappeared and turned to smiles on the coach, with lots of singing! The students are already rising to the challenge of understanding and responding to French and we look forward to seeing their confidence develop as the week goes on.

What an action-packed first day today!

Everyone settled into bed so well on their first night.

Today was a very varied day, combining culture and adventure. We started the day in Rouen, a beautiful old city, where we did a short walking tour, looking at the cathedral and the clock tower (le Gros Horloge). Outside the cathedral we looked at some of Monet’s series paintings of the cathedral’s facade and the group said in French what they thought the weather and the time of day was in each picture.

We then went on to the Musée des Beaux Arts, which houses a lovely collection of Impressionist paintings. We focused on just those three rooms, encouraging them to take photos of their favourite paintings and asking them to complete a match-up activity of paintings with simple descriptions in French. It was lovely to see how, even those who had expressed a wish to go shopping in Sephora instead (!) were immediately struck by these colourful and joyful paintings. They were keen to talk about their favourites as we walked back to the coach after a picnic in the park.

We then travelled to the high ropes centre. On arrival, the team at Accrobranches quickly got them equipped and explained the system. Mr Mangham and Mr Edwards joined them on the high ropes, while Mrs Gaul joined the alternative Escape Room activity and I walked around and called up words of encouragement! The courses were very exciting and some were really challenging. However, it was amazing to see how the students rose to the challenge and gained confidence and also to see how they encouraged and supported each other and had fun.

After snacks and drinks, we headed back to the château for a very nice dinner, followed by showers and an early night.

All is well, spirits are high, the French is flowing and the girls are being well looked after!

Today we started the day at ‘Nausica’ in Boulogne, which is the largest aquarium in Europe. We enjoyed seeing everything from sharks to clownfish, huge stingrays to sea turtles.

Then we went on to the pretty seaside town of Wimereux, where we had our picnic on the beach before meeting our lovely lifeguard Céline, who supervised the group in the ‘bassin’, the large tidal pool on the beach. We had a really lovely afternoon of swimming, beach games, reading and chatting. One group went to a café on the promenade for crêpes and one group had a little look at the town with me. It was a really lovely afternoon.

After dinner Tom led a scavenger hunt in the château gardens before everyone went back to their rooms for bedtime.

Yesterday we spent the morning in Amiens, where Tom led a walking tour of the beautiful gothic cathedral and the waterside ‘quartier Saint Leu’ before giving everyone some free time to explore the shops. They came back very happy with their purchases which ranged from Sephora products to Harry Potter books in French.

The afternoon’s focus was on the memorials of the First World War. We began at Thiepval, a vast monument dedicated to 720,000 soldiers without graves. Sitting under the shade of a large tree, Mr Edwards did a useful recap of some of the history we had learned in our Preparation Day with Mr Nightingale. We then spent half an hour walking around, finding the names of some family members (Hannah found her great, great grandfather’s name), as well as some Norwich and Norfolk names that we had been given, including that of Sergeant Lewis Colman, a Norwich High School BOY (there were a small number of boys who attended the school with their sisters before the war). Many of us were struck by how many times our own surname was repeated, a very sobering thought. We then returned to the shade of the tree, just as a Scottish piper started to play in the distance. We could not have asked for better timing, as Ellie M and Hannah volunteered to read the very moving poetry that they had written on Friday. It was a very special moment and we were proud, as ever, of the way that everyone was respectful and reflective in this small act of remembrance.

After Thiepval we visited the crater of Lochnagar, a huge crater created by the detonation of an underground mine.

Finally, we had a lovely relaxed evening last night after dinner. Tom led a fun ‘Le beret’ game outside for those that wanted, while others just relaxed in their rooms or sang and danced in the gardens.

Today we are having a very welcome quiet day, mostly here at the château. We will be having a French lesson, making bread, playing games and visiting the supermarket before getting ready for our ‘soirée française’ this evening for our final night.

I am writing from the coach on our way back. Everyone did so well this morning – all packing was done and rooms cleared and tidied by 7am ready for an early breakfast and departure by 8, waved off by Tom, our lovely animateur.

Yesterday we had a relaxed day at the château doing outdoor games and music with the animateurs in the morning and then bread making in the afternoon. We then had a shopping trip to the supermarket where the girls stocked up on snacks and gifts.

We then returned to the château to prepare for departure and also to get ready for our soirée française. There was the opportunity to sample snails if wanted but otherwise a nice spaghetti bolognaise and ice cream. Tom then organised a disco using a playlist he had made with the girls, which was great fun. There was lots more singing and dancing (this is definitely a singing year group!) before we returned to the rooms to get ready for bed.