Languages at De La Salle

Dante Alighieri

The Italian students competed in the Dante Alighieri Poetry Recital Competition at Melbourne University and the French students in the Berthe Mouchette Poetry Competition at the Alliançe Française. Both these competitions take many hours of preparation on the part of the students and the contest is always fierce, with schools from all over Melbourne taking part. To their credit, students in languages prepared for their competition whilst preparing for their Semester 1 exams — an exercise that cannot have been easy. Congratulations must go to each of them for just taking up the challenge! Senior students took up the contest wholeheartedly, even with the interruption to their regular study pattern. The experience is a worthwhile exercise in preparation for the Oral VCE Exams. Well done to all students for stepping out of their comfort zone.

Kath Marino LOTE Coordinator

Tour to Italy

This year’s Italian Cultural Exchange provided 21 students with the opportunity to experience the ‘real’ Italy — staying with Italian families and soaking up the culture, cuisine and artistic wonders of Venice, Rome, Siena, Assisi and Florence. The nineteen-day tour took in visits to the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, the Basilica of St Francis of Assisi and St Peter’s in Rome. From the initial gondola ride in Venice, the visits to museums and awe-inspiring churches, bargaining with shop keepers when purchasing the best fashion items in the world, through to a Papal Benediction on Palm Sunday in St Peter’s Square, the tour was inspiring. Visual Arts teacher and tour leader, Mr David Happ, said the highlight of the tour was discussing Michelangelo’s ‘Holy family’ in front of the original work in the Uffizi Galley in Florence.

“Undoubtedly the highlight for the students was their home stay with their families in Siena,” he said. Eleven days of going to school and experiencing the best of Tuscany with their peers was an opportunity that they all appreciated. As one student said, “You are actually aware of how special this is, how lucky you are, and how happy you are…and while you are doing it”. Kath Marino LOTE Coordinator

Tour to France

The De La Salle French exchange, led by French teacher Mr Thierry Moran, had an enriching and memorable three-week trip to Paris and the northwest of France. Students were overcome by the splendours of Paris, which included a climb up the Eiffel Tower and a boat ride down the Seine, visits to the Louvre and the Royal Palace at Versailles and its gardens on a mild and sunny spring day. After three days in Paris the group departed for Rennes in Brittany, their main destination in northern France. Students experienced life in an ordinary French family. They observed and took part in school life at the Lycee De La Salle in Rennes (founded and run by De La Salle brothers, it is now a very successful professional educational establishment which prepares young men and women between the ages of 15 and 25 for administrative and technical careers). In Rennes, the boys furthered their knowledge of cultural life and explored the north coast of Brittany, including the enclosed ‘Corsaire’ city of St Malo and the Mont St Michel.

Photograph by Kevin Duong

Southward, we travelled to Nantes, the other capital city of Brittany. Finally, the group made its way back to Paris and took the opportunity to visit the ‘Butte Montmartre’ and its souvenir shops. Then it was back on a plane back to Australia. It was an educational adventure for one and all. Ms Christine Cooper

L’excursion de la classe de français

Pour célébrér la fête de Pâques, les quatre élèves de français avec leur prof, Mme Di Giacomo, sont allés à une pâtisserie- La Tropezienne. Ils sont arrives là par le tram.

James Rate La boulangerie vend des pâtisseries typiquement de <Provence>. Ils vendent du pain, des gâteaux, des pâtisseries, et des baguettes.

Kevin Duong Nous avons mangé les Croque -monsieurs et nous avons bu l’Orangina. C’était déliceux!

Shehan Boteju Nous étions très contents après le déjeuner. Stuart Brennan-Smith Tout bien considéré, une journée super!

Zac Spencer