Francophonie Day

March 19th is Francophonie day so a fitting time to celebrate the third year of the local Taren Point Public School bilingual programme. The programme was started in collaboration with our local French Association , which Mary and myself help to found , starting about 8  years ago but materialising in last 3 years and is going strong. The school programme is growing each year.

There were French Consulates from France, Canada, Fiji, Papua New Guinea there plus dept of Education directors and school principals and teachers, parents and some local MP's and councillors. Very energetic discussions and nice finger food and champagne, of course.

To European and especially English viewers of this site, it may seem strange adopting a French programme in an Australian school, but the remoteness of Australia makes anything European (or anywhere else!) seem a bit exotic and the decline in language study is also a worry for education generally.

So France and French language suits well, as would Italian, Spanish etc .