Organising a trip to New Caledonia

1. Organising a trip to New Caledonia

2. Why organise a trip? • To give students a first-hand experience of French culture and issues for local children • To enable to students to interact with students from another culture and find ways to share with and support these students • To improve language skills • To give students a real reason to use their language skills • To give students a motivation to continue with their language • To broaden students’ horizons in a globalised world

3. Why New Caledonia? • They speak French and despite the island context it has a very French feel • It is close – 2 ½ hours by plane • It is a safe environment • It is relatively cheap • It is a beautiful place and easy to organise interesting outdoor activities

4. Why Year 9? • In Year 9 the camp program is focussed on service: • Local projects Blue Mountains area • National projects in Ti-Tree in the Northern Territory • The New Caledonia trip provides an international perspective

5. Why Year 9? • Students are old enough to have the maturity to deal with the trip • Students have developed reasonable language skills to enable genuine communication – particularly those who come through the Junior school. • It is a good practice run for the exchange program to Ferney-Voltaire in France at the end of Year 10. • Year 9 is a time when we often lose a number of students

6. Selecting a Partner School • In our case it was a school that had approached us some years ago – Ecole Louise Michel in Bourrail . This made it easier to make contact as there was already a history. • The important thing is that there be a willing and reliable member of staff to liaise with in New Caledonia – we are very lucky to have Mme Laure Delafenêtre! • It was also more interesting to have a school in la brousse in Bourrail – it was a very different context for our urban students.

7. Service Aspect of this Project • There are two important aspects to this: • for our students to gain a genuine understanding of the lives of students in a different culture • For our students to make a positive contribution to those students’ lives • The language becomes the means to achieving these objectives rather than the focus of the experience

8. Selecting a Partner School • Able to visit the capital Nouméa– however were accompanied by the students from Bourail – it was an adventure for them too – we could share this. • Unexpectedly it worked greatly in our favour that this was a Primary school – our students felt more comfortable interacting with the kids and weren’t so worried about making mistakes – more like big sisters. They developed quite close relationships without the inevitable worries that this might entail if the correspondants were older.

9. Where is Bourail?

10. Selecting a Partner School • Students did have the chance to visit a collège. Our students were much more inhibited. Although the contact was a great experience and possibly we could expand this aspect.

11. Activities prior to trip • Email /letters– introducing themselves – photo - and in subsequent ones responding to questions • Skype • Powerpoint presentations – interesting places in each country / important facts and figures. • Raise some money before going to purchase some useful piece of equipment for the school (need to consult the school to find out what might be useful)

12. Activities During Trip - Bourail • Students getting to know each other – play a sports game / icebreaker (name game) / board games – Guess who? Scatagories • Students could teach each other some games from their respective cultures • Students could teach each other some songs from their respective cultures • Students could prepare some typical food that they like to eat. • students could give a little presentation about Sydney/Australia – using photos etc. This would also give a real opportunity for students with strong language skills to make a contribution.

13. Activities During Trip - Bourail • students could teach a few words of English and do some activities to reinforce this. • working with the school community to help improve physical environment – some sort of artistic project, eg create a mural • Visit local Melanesian community to learn about this aspect of the culture

14. Activities - Noumea • visit beach at L’Anse-Vata (half a day) • Visit l’île aux canards (half a day) – swimming / snorkelling • visit Le PhareAmédée lighthouse on an island 1 hour from Noumea by ferry. Lunch/walk around island/swimming – there is a beautiful coral reef (a day trip) • The aquarium • Le ParcForestier – local zoo.

15. Activities - Noumea • The Melanesian Cultural Centre – Centre Jean-Marie Tjibaou – world class architecture by … You could easily spend a day here. This world heritage Centre was designed by internationally renowned architect Renzo Piano (who designed the Pompidou Centre in Paris). It is one of the great pieces of architecture of our time. • la forêtbleue – a couple of hours from Noumea – this would involve a bush walk (1 day) • Waterslide and beach – (1/2-1 day)

16. Communication with parents • We used a blog as both a way for students to document what they had been doing in English and French • It was also a good way for parents/the school peers to fell like they knew what was going on. • Some students used their mobile phones – although they need international roaming • We purchased a group phone card for use in public phones • I also purchased a sim card for New Caledonia – useful to have at least one mobile

17. Accommodation • In Bourail we stayed in cabins near the beach – these were next to the teacher’s house – run by her husband. This was excellent – we were independent and cooked for ourselves – great experience for the students as they had to plan and prepare meals – as well as help with the shopping etc. • The cabins gave them some down time after being on the go all day • On the negative side they obviously spoke more English

18. Accommodation • Billeting is another possibility, however there are a lot more risks and difficulties associated with this • In Noumea we stayed in apartments – worked out the cheapest option. The students from Bourail were in the same apartments – this was an excellent solution. • We ate out in Noumea as there was no time to prepare food.