inside enp no.3 - The English National Programme

ISSUE

3

English National Programme Lycée International de Ferney-Voltaire

October

inside enp

2012

Primary Special! CE1 Induction P1 Guest speakers for CM2 P2 CM1 Simply Theatre trip P3

The initiation day helped my daughter ease her anxiety about coming to the "big school" for ENP. She was able to see her classroom and meet her teacher, and left the afternoon energized and excited to learn. When we came to class on the first day, she knew who her teacher was and where she was supposed to line up, which made the process easier for everyone. I think the initiation day underscores the positive nature of the ENP programme.

Mary Pat Fisk (mum of Ethan, CM1, and Ella, CE1)

Welcome to our New Pupils! At ENP we recognise that starting English classes can be an anxious time for children and parents alike. It’s a new stage in the children’s academic learning and a step into the unknown. One way to help make this step as easy as possible is to have an induction afternoon. The induction afternoon is a new initiative, started for the first time last year. It is held the week before the official start date. Children and parents are invited to spend an hour at ENP with their new teacher. This afternoon provides the children and parents with the opportunity to meet their class teacher and classmates, to familiarise themselves with the layout and set-up of the school and to get to know the routines at ENP. CE1 pupils on their way to visit their new classrooms and meet their new teachers.

We hope that the induction afternoon helps to allay any fears and makes the first session at ENP less daunting. Of course, it’s also a chance for us to get to know the children and meet the parents too. From a teacher’s point of view, we think it’s been a success. The children enjoyed the afternoon and the first session at ENP ran smoothly. But what did the parents think? By Judith Slade, Angela Horsford (CE1 team)

Paul Kelly, Librarian

"It was a good idea to have guest speakers come speak to our class, because it gives you more ideas about what you can become when you’re older.” Danny Martínez O’Reilly, (CM2C pupils)

Budding CM2 Journalists Interview Guests Armed with pens, curiosity and loads of open-ended questions, the CM2 students changed caps on Tuesday and Wednesday, September 18th, 19th, to assume the roles of budding Inside ENP journalists. They opened their classroom doors to parents representing a variety of inspiring professions, ranging from a world-traveling librarian to a photovoltaic research engineer, as well as an innovative entrepreneur, a particle physicist, a professor of brain and cognitive sciences, and a project leader of the ATLAS experiment on the LHC at CERN.

Paul Kelly, Lucie Garreau-Iles, Michelle Guiliano, Rebeca González Suárez, Daphne Bavelier and Pippa Wells generously volunteered their time, sharing the fascinating details of their professions with the wide-eyed and inquisitive CM2 children. The opportunity allowed the CM2s to meet professionals exercising a range of gratifying careers and to interview them, and has definitely given them some food for thought. Who knew that you could travel around the world, visiting some remote regions of Africa,

Article by Donnamarie O'Reilly, CM2 teacher

working as a

librarian?

“I thought librarians just sat in stuffy, old school libraries,” reflected Roman Norris of CM2C. But Paul Kelly explained that “with fewer books today, the job of a librarian has changed,” - as has, undoubtedly, the way the pupils now view certain careers. The CM2s are very grateful for having been awarded this unique opportunity to meet these professionals one-onone and would like to thank all of the parents who generously offered their afternoons to come and speak with them.

“Always fun to observe young budding brains! And I feel very privileged that our group was selected for a picture…” Daphne Bavelier,

(Professor of Brain and Cognitive Sciences )

Some questions asked: how Michelle Guiliano, founder of BolderKids (an outdoor sportswear line for babies), exposed her products to the market; what other projects Lucie Garreau-Iles has worked on at Dupont (other than improving the quality of solar panels while looking for a way to make them more costeffective); or when physicist Pippa Wells realized that she wanted to become a scientist ... These showed that some of the CM2s may actually have a future in journalism in store for them. Daphne Bavelier, Professor of Brain and Cognitive Sciences

CM1 Simply Theatre Trip Four weeks into the new school year and the classes of CM1 were already off on a trip. Each class took its turn to visit the Simply Theatre studios in Versoix where they were put through their paces by Pete, one of the acting coaches.

“We felt how scary and exciting it was for Danny's

The aim of the workshop was to bring the class reading book, “Danny, the Champion of the World” by Roald Dahl, to life and so give the children a deeper understanding of the text.

father when he was poaching!”

Activities included working together with a common goal and experiencing what it would be like to be chased by a gamekeeper through a dark wood. The children were asked to think carefully about the characterisation in the book. They read a short passage and then broke it down into three titled scenes. They then had to carefully portray each character’s feelings and thoughts in one action snap shot. This made the group realise how much information was contained in just part of a Roald Dahl chapter. Learning through drama helps children think differently about texts they encounter. It gives them an active role in a scenario, thus helping them to empathise with the characters involved. More drama in the classroom has been planned for the CM1 classes, some of the results of which parents will see in the assembly performance in the New Year.

Workshop

“It was

Judging by the children’s comments following the workshop, the trip was a truly exciting educational experience.

awesome!”

By Carolyn Howson, Doreen Power and Karen Wainwright (CM1 team)

Comments from CM1 pupils

“We weren't working at all!”

“That was so much fun!”