“Entente Formidable” for NewVIc
Students and staff at NewVIc welcomed French Minister for Education, Luc Chatel, to the college on Thursday 14 January during a brief visit to the UK.
The Minister is in London to meet with Ed Balls, Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, and he stopped in at NewVIc to meet Principal Eddie Playfair and some of NewVIc’s francophone students and staff.
NewVIc has two teachers from France who are seconded to the college as part of the Jules Verne scheme. Gabriel Vacher, an art and design teacher, and Eric Dupont, an electronics teacher, met Mr Chatel during the visit, showing him how technology is used in the classroom at NewVIc. The teachers are using their time at NewVIc to learn about the English education system and to develop links between the colleges.
Eddie Playfair, NewVIc Principal, was proud to welcome Luc Chatel to London and to NewVIc and to help inform the Minister about the English education system. Mr Playfair said of the ongoing links between NewVIc and French colleges: “It’s clear that education providers in different countries can learn a lot from each other and NewVIc is keen to build proactive partnerships with colleges in France which can benefit our students’ learning and broaden the experience of our staff.
“It’s easy for us to get very absorbed in our own national system with its own particular issues. Working with colleagues from abroad helps us see the educational aims and values which are common to all systems. International links like these help to remind us that there are other ways of doing things and that other countries do things differently and in some cases better. We need to be more open to these influences and the Jules Verne scheme offers a very practical way of supporting this dialogue. All credit to the French government for continuing to fund it.”
Before leaving the college, Luc Chatel spoke to business certificate student Viththiyapathy Chandirakumar, 19, from East Ham. Viththiyapathy said: “It was an honour to meet the French Minister for Education. I talked to him about the differences between education in the UK and in France. In the UK we have much more choice of subjects, which is good as you can choose something you like. At NewVIc we have smartboards in the classrooms and our learning is much more interactive than in France.”