Lille – France | Year 6 Trip
On Tuesday 30th June, pupils from both Bloxwich Primary and Pool Hayes Primary travelled on a four-day trip to Lille, France with the Turing Scheme. The Turing Scheme is a government initiative, that fully funds a range of international opportunities for young people to visit places abroad and experience different cultures around the globe.
After a long but smooth coach/ferry journey, we arrived at the Hostel. Eager to explore our new surroundings, we went for a short walk around the area, before returning to our accommodation for a relaxed, socialising dinner in the lively Hostel lobby.
Each morning, we were met with a breakfast fit for a King! Buffet style and consisted of all the usual French cuisine: croissants, pains au chocolat, freshly baked baguettes with choices of jams and spreads, as well as bacon and hash browns. Nobody went hungry!
Our first day started with a visit to a snail farm just outside of Lille. The pupils had a French (translated into English by Ms Callanan) talk about the process of raising snails and getting them ready to eat! We then went outside and visited the snails, who were hidden under planks out of the sun. Our pupils were very keen to hold the snails!
After buying lunch in Carrefour, we headed to the Musée d’illusions where nothing is quite as it seems. Pupils enjoyed being served for dinner, dangling off balconies and losing their balance in the vortex tunnel – or maybe it was all an illusion…
We then hopped back on the coach to Lille Zoo, where we saw lots of animals – favourites were definitely the red panda and the monkeys – before heading to a local pizzeria for our evening meal.
After food, pupils headed up into the trees for high ropes challenges, whilst nervously waiting for the England result. With the football won, they challenged themselves beyond what they thought possible with lots of pupils taking on the zip wire at the end.
Our next morning was spent visiting Sophie Germain Elementary School, where our pupils met the French children. The school was very welcoming, and took us on a tour of their city, where pupils visited the Grand Place and the cathedral. Our pupils tried hard with their French and communicated brilliantly.
After a quick lunch in the school cafeteria, we drove to Dunkirk and visited a museum outlining the history of Operation Dynamo and the D Day landings. Pupils found and shared lots of interesting facts about clothing, military history and what happened in the war. We then continued to the beach of Dunkirk, where we soaked up the sun, played on the beach, paddled in the sea and enjoyed a much-needed ice cream. We ended our time in Dunkirk with a group dinner in one of the beach-front restaurants before heading back to pack ready for our journey home.
Our ferry home was substantially delayed, but our pupils enjoyed football on the tarmac and a bit of coach karaoke before returning home, exhausted but full of adventures and stories to share.
