FR23 MC Welcome to France

The French organizer, Mr Tondeur, gives a short speech and provides a dossier with information about the week programme, the list of participants, main facts about France, the region and Dunkirk.

Targeted students are brought to one presentation room and each of the teams presents their hometowns, the main features of the area and their high school and their daily life there. 

In order to know each other the students participate in an ice breaking activity. This activity is a bingo where students can tick on a box by finding a person who answers affirmatively a question and they write down the name of that person. Students can ask anyone in the room with the exception of their nationality team members so the could widen their social circle during the programme from the very beginning. 

 The example shown is about geography. Apart from the results they also project a video about their findings about Portugal, the activities they carried out, and some impressions about the trip. 

At the end of the session everyone was in silence for a minute following the French host’s instructions, mourning the killing of a teacher three weeks ago. 

The students really enjoyed the activity because they got to know each other in a playful way and at ease. All the teams were paying attention to the other teams’ presentations and everybody got to know the high school projects. Also, all the students got the opportunity to talk and to introduce themselves. They saw how important having good communication skills is. The minute of silence made them reflect about the importance of education and mutual respect.