Shoreham Academy students welcome French penfriends

The students regularly send letters to each other, so it was a welcome opportunity for the penfriends to meet face-to-face.

William Tromans, Shoreham Academy’s director of professional development in the modern foreign languages department, has been organising exchanges for 17 years and the annual trip to Paris is always popular with the students.

He said: “The link is a well-established exchange with a comprehensive school in the south of Normandy called la Croix Mitre Renault, which is located on the route back to Calais.

“Year-nine students from Shoreham Academy going on the Paris trip this year, 46 in total, have been writing to their French penfriends before Christmas in French and in English.”

The French penfriends arrived in the morning and met their Shoreham peers for the first time at break, in the main hall.

Head teacher Jim Coupe gave a speech in French and the students prepared a presentation in French and English to welcome their friends.

Mr Tromans said: “After a very engaging tour of the school and a French and English speaking activity, Shoreham Academy students took their penfriends to lessons with them so they could really embrace the experience of being in a British school.

“The French penfriends added a tremendous amount of culture to our lessons for the day. The school was buzzing with excitement as this fabulous day saw the birth of brand new European friendships.”

The Shoreham students are now making the return trip to France and will spend the day in the French school on Friday.

Mr Tromans said: “This is an amazing opportunity for our students to spend some time with French speaking teenagers who are from France in a real French school environment. The English penfriends will also shadow their fellow French penfriends in lessons, just like they did with us.”