Scots College – Learning. For Life.

From the 23 September to 3 October 2011, seven-a-side rugby teams from six French high-schools located around the world (that are part of the Agency for French Education abroad) will travel to New Zealand to take part in the Young Rugby Reporters project.

Scots College, in partnership with sister school Queen Margaret College, is very pleased to have the opportunity to host the 62 students from Tunisia, the United States, Hong Kong, Spain, New Caledonia and Australia during their visit to Aotearoa.

Seven-a-side Tournament: Thurs 29 September, 9.00am - 4.00pm at Scots College (open to public)
The focal point of the project is a large one-day tournament to be held on the grounds of Scots College from 9.00am to 4.00pm on Thursday 29 September.  In this competition, the 62 visiting students will compete in friendly seven-a-side matches against pupils from Scots College and Queen Margaret College.

15-a-side Rugby Match: Fri 30 September, 9.30am at Scot College
(open to the public)
Players from each of the six teams will also be selected to form a 15-a-side team to compete against their hosts at 9.30am on Friday 30 September.  Wellingtonians and other visitors to the city are free to come and support whichever team they choose!

Young Rugby Reporters Project
As the name of the project indicates, Young Rugby Reporters offers participating pupils the opportunity to relay their experiences to their classmates: Each team will be provided with a laptop, a video camera and a camera to take turns to create a post about their trip (in French and in English) for the Young Rugby Reporters blog. This blog will also include photos and possibly short video clips. Upon their return to school, each team must produce a 10 minute video report to be broadcast on a website designed specifically for the use of the entire Agency for the teaching of French overseas.

Other highlights of the young ambassadors’ stay in Aotearoa will include meeting the current French Rugby Team, who they will support at the France-Tonga match on 1 October, meetings with former All Blacks, a training session with Gordon Tietjens, coach of the New Zealand Rugby Sevens Team on Monday 26 September from 9.00am to noon at Scots College (members of the media are welcome to attend), visits to Te Papa and Wellington.

The Teams

Hong Kong

Name of School: The French International High-School of Hong Kong
165, Blue Pool Road, Happy Valley, Hong Kong
www.fis.edu.hk
http://www.fis.edu.hk/web/Default.aspx?r=1&lang=fr-fr

Team
Tissia POLYCARPE
Emily SPENCER
Charlotte THOMPSON
Viviane VIX
Laetetia ARZEL
Lorraine Lok Tung CHU
Margerie DE LAMBILLY
Lou JACQUES
Noemie LEVY
Charlotte LOUIS

Head of Delegation: Philippe GUILLO
Coach: Rodney MacIntosh
Junior editor-in-chief: Viviane Vix

About the school:
Number of pupils: 599 (international section) and 1,557 (French section).
The French International High School of Hong Kong was founded in 1964 as a ‘little Francophone school’ for a handful of students. In January 1994, the thousandth student enrolled at the school. Today nearly 2,200 pupils attend the French International High-School of Hong Kong.

Every year the high school opens two to three classes at primary or secondary level. This growth is steady and closely linked to the increase of French nationals in Hong Kong (nearly 8000 in May 2009). Numerous projects to enlarge and restore the school have been undertaken to cope with this growth.

Madrid, Spain

Name of School : Liceo Francés Madrid
http://www.lycee-francais-madrid.org
http://lfmadrid.net

Team
Antoine Pierre François Jaubert
Guillaume De Froment
Guillaume Dieude
Guillermo-Luis Pena
Joachim Robin Norman Vial
Jorge Toran Carpio
Maxime Lavech du Bosc
Nathan Prinet
Javier De Ramon
Raphaël Guillaumet

Head of Delegation: Julien Cassan
Coach: Angel Garcia
Junior editor-in-chief: Guillermo Pena Corrales

About the school:
Number of pupils: 3,622.
The opening of the French International High-School of Madrid in 1919 followed the opening of the French Welfare Society which was created in 1884. This charitable organisation was located on the Margués de la Ensenada road, the current location of the French Cultural Section, the Consulate of France and the Institut Français.

The school was closed during the Spanish Civil War. It re-opened its doors in October 1939. More and more students began to attend. The increase is clearly noticeable: from 253 students in 1923 and 890 in 1939, 1,065 in 1940, 1,600 in 1943 and 2200 in 1964. It proved impossible to enlarge the premises on the Marqués de la Ensenada, so the high school moved to Parc Conde de Orgaz at the beginning of the 1969 school year.
 
Since then, the high-school has continued to grow. A new building was built in 1985 to host the youngest pre-school students. L’école Saint-Exupéry de la ‘Moraleja’ became part of the French High-School of Madrid at the beginning of the 1998 school year.

Noumea, New Caledonia

Name of school: Lycée Polyvalent Jules Garnier
http://www.ac-noumea.nc/jules-garnier/spip.php?article46
No. of pupils: 1800

Team
Théo GRIMMELPONT
Quentin MORI
Abraham NEI
William SOKO
Bernard THEVENOT
Benjamin GUILLON
Nicolas MALAKAI
Nathanaël SUTA
Jonathan WATHA
Faouzia OUJANOU
Amanda POINRAOUPOEPOE
Kathleen WRIGHT

Head of delegation/Headmaster:  André GABLE
Coach: Frédéric COSTES
Accompanying staff/English teacher: Sabrina ELMOUR

 

Sydney, Australia

Name of School: Lycee Concordet
http://www.condorcet.com.au/default.aspx

Team
Felix FERRANDIS
Théo Maurice Francis GALLIS
Romain DANNEL-CALVANI
Bryan LEURQUIN
Jack-Paul BENNET
Thomas Arnaud Henri CRUSSOL
Aladdin LAMBERT
Julien Oliver VINCENT
Aaron Leigh HUYNH
Elliot Gaston MOTTE

Head of delegation: Pascal Giraud
Coach: Loïc Kavala
Junior editor-in-chief: Félix Ferrandis

About the school:
The French International High-School of Sydney is approved and regulated by French authorities. This approval means that the teaching at the school conforms to French education programs. The school is accredited to prepare students for the French secondary exams (Diplôme National du Brevet and the Baccalauréat). Regular inspections are organised by the AEFE (Agency for French Teaching Abroad). The French International High-School of Sydney is also a French exam centre for the whole of Australia.

The school population is made up of students from 20 different nationalities and a particular effort is made to integrate non francophone students by providing French as a Foreign Language classes. The International French School of Sydney has put in place an international section, preparing students for the International Baccalaureate (also called the Geneva Baccalaureate). The teaching is carried out entirely in English, from Year 10 to Year 12.

Tunisia, Africa

School: Lycée Pierre Mendès France
http://www.lyceepmf-tunis.com/public/

Team
Selfedine Allouche
Anis Bakir
Sami Bitri
Medhi Chouba
Sami Gehis
Aziz Kriaa
Yassine Larbi
Malek Makhlouf
Ismaïl Ounis
Thierry Spina

Head of delegation: Yann Chartter
Coach:  Marc Marechal
Junior editor-in-chief: TBC

About the school:
Number of pupils: 1000 junior high-school students and 700 high school students

WASHINGTON, USA

School: Lycee Rochambeau
http://rochambeau.org/secondaire/secondaire.html

Team
Amaury PECHOULTRE DE LAMARTINE
Arthur LEBLANC
Dylan, Hugo SIMON
Benjamin BALDUCCHI
Alexis CARE
Luc VINCENT
Jean THOMAS
Samuel SHEELY
Thierno ZANIFE
Alexander KLAUSE

Head of delegation:  Eric Veteau
Coach: Marc-Laurent Roux
Junior editor-in-chief: Amaury PECHOULTRE DE LAMARTINE 

About the school:
At the beginning of the 1940s, Father Argaut, a French priest and former missionary in India, arrived into Washington, DC as a curate for St. Matthew’s cathedral where he worked until 1958. Although not the official priest of the Washington, DC French community, he ministered baptisms, marriages and religious ceremonies for the French.

Although Washington, DC’s French-speaking community was still relatively small in the 1940’s, the community grew steadily after World War II due to the arrival of newly formed International Organizations in Washington, DC. Post World War II, organizations such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the Pentagon and NATO attracted hundreds of French speaking families into Washington, DC. During the 1960’s, the number of French speaking families in the area increased further as a result of African Francophone countries opening new Embassies.

As the majority of Washington, DC’s French-speaking community was catholic, it became essential to provide them with a place to worship in French. During the mid-1950s, a Jesuit from the U.N. Secretariat, Father Emmanuel de Breuvery, traveled from New York once a month to celebrate mass for the French-speaking community of Washington in the Sacred Heart chapel on Wisconsin Avenue (Maryland). The mass was followed by a breakfast under the aegis of Mother Mouton.

In 1953, Father Guillet funded the French International School and ran it until his death in 1962 but he did not officiate as a priest. It became evident that a place of worship for the French catholic community was needed. It would be opened to mixed families such as the French-American ones but also to Francophile American families and it would be in charge of the religious upbringing of the French School of Washington students, a school that would later become the Lycée Rochambeau.