During my long service
leave in Term 4 of 2015 I really did have an excellent adventure in Morocco,
England and France.
I have wanted to
visit Morocco for a long time as it is a theme that features in our Year 11
French programme. I am so pleased that I will now be able to impart to my
students the firsthand knowledge I have gained by visiting this spectacular
country and learning about some of its history and customs. The three highlights were Volubilis, Fès and
Chefchaouen. Volubilis is the site of the ancient Roman
ruins not far from Moulay Idriss. The buildings on this site date back to
the first century. There were richly appointed residences all with
mosaics; these impressive works appear all around Volubilis and have not been
restored. In Fès I visitied the labyrinth of streets in the medina. The medina
stretches over 740 acres and is where all sorts of artisans’ workshops can be
found: pottery and mosaics; leather tanneries; silversmiths; and weavers. But it was Chefchaouen which really stole my
heart. It was much more peaceful that
other Moroccan cities we visited and the blue walls throughout the city made
every street look picture postcard perfect.
This custom dates back to when the Jews fled to Chefchaouen from Spain
during the Spanish Inquisition and they painted the buildings blue to remind
them of God.
In England, I was
able to attend the Firefly annual conference in Birmingham where the
co-founders, Simon and Joe, gave a sneak peek of things that are coming in the
not too distant future. I’m sure St
Ursula’s College students will benefit even more from this amazing Learning
Management System with the introduction of new features. In London, I visited the Firefly head office
where I was shown where it all began. I
also had the privilege of sharing some of the great work teachers have been
doing on our Firefly pages at St Ursula’s with the Firefly team.
Since my stay in
France totalled over three months, it’s hard to pick a highlight; however, one
of them was visiting Lycée Notre Dame le Ménimur, an Ursuline high school in
Vannes in the region of Brittany. I was
welcomed so warmly into the classrooms and homes of a number of teachers. I particularly enjoyed visiting the
classrooms and sharing information about Australia and St Ursula’s
College. The students were genuinely
interested in learning about their link with a school on the other side of the
planet, and Australian history and culture, but they were particularly
intrigued by some of our wonderful animal life.
In the homes of my hosts I was able to try some local specialities which
included andouille, a sausage made from offal (which, surprisingly, I liked), a
gwen ah du (a decadent salted caramel and chocolate cake) and gochtial, which
is a brioche type bread. According to one
of my hosts, Saint Armel (a small town not far from Vannes), is the only place
where one can purchase an authentic gochtial. During my time in Vannes, I
was also able to visit some spectacular sites such as the Neolithic standing
stones of Carnac and the rugged Atlantic coastline near Saint Gildas de
Rhuys. I am so grateful for the insights
I was given into school and family life in Vannes and for the amazing
hospitality I was shown. I hope that our
links with this wonderful school community will develop with a view to cultural
exchanges between our students.
