More pupil visits planned

    MORE visits are planned between Dover Boys' Grammar School and the College Saint-Pierre in Calais following the latest exchange trip.

    Year seven pupils, 11 and 12-year-olds from both schools, have been writing to each other and have now visited each other's schools for a day.

    The Dover boys went to Calais in March. Last Tuesday 28 boys and girls from the French college arrived in Dover for the day.
    They toured the grammar school, enjoyed school dinners and then took part in a nature trail on Whinless Down with the grammar boys, answering questions in English and French.

Teacher Martine Hargraves with the visitors from France

    It is seven years since the first link was made between the schools. The exchanges began when former grammar school music teacher Adrian Boynton took a group of musicians to Calais and teachers at the college expressed an interest in a link.

    At that stage the schools were similar. Both were boys schools with about the same number of pupils.
    Since then the Calais school, which is part of the Centre Scolaire Saint Pierre, has admitted girls and now has around 600 pupils aged 11 to 15.
    The centre caters for more than 1,800 children and young people from nursery age to post A level.
    The French group said they were impressed by the character of the boys' grammar school building as well as the craft, design and technology workshops and the computer facilities.
    Year eight pupils will visit each other for two days next year. They will stay in each other's homes overnight and this will give them more experience of the culture and way of life in the two countries.