In response to the approach from Barrs Court Primary School, we visited in the penultimate week of term and gave a half hour presentation to three different classes at the School. The presentation was on all things Bordeaux and twinning.
We focused on Bordeaux, its history, its location in France, its trade – wine of course was mentioned – and we discussed some of the differences between the French and British school days. And we also took a little time to talk about the other cities twinned with Bristol.
We asked the pupils what they already knew about Bordeaux, why they thought the Mayor of Bordeaux and the Mayor of Bristol would meet and what they would discuss and even how many bottles of wine they thought that the Bordeaux region produced in a year!
And of course the topic of the recent placements of students from Bristol University in various Bordeaux primary schools for two weeks was raised – which interested the pupils.
When asked how the sessions went and whether the children enjoyed the presentation, a couple of replies were “It was fun to learn about the student exchange programme – that was really interesting.” and “It was really fun to listen to. He kept us all engaged.”
Let’s hope that we now have nearly a hundred young Bristolians fired up with a desire to visit France and, you never know, an ambition to live or work in Bordeaux in the future.
If you know of a Bristol primary school who may also want to take advantage of the offer of repeating this presentation in the 2023/4 year, please reply to this email – or ask them to contact us directly. We’d love to be able to help and to spread the message re twinning in general and Bordeaux in particular.
A bientôt!
Mark Atherton, for
Bristol Bordeaux Partnership
www.bristolbordeaux.org