Christmas is coming

Excitement over Christmas has been mounting over the last month, but at a much reduced level to the excesses of TV and shop advertising seen in the UK. No Christmas tunes blaring out in the supermarkets is a blessed relief.

The school recently held a Christmas market which raised just over 1,000 euros. This means that all the children will be able to go on at least one outing next year, without the parents having to dip into their pockets for more cash.

On Thursday we had our special canteen Christmas meal. The venue was the community room under the town hall.

At ten to 12 a crocodile of around 90 adults and children set off on the 5 minute walk to the venue.

The staff of the CLAE (out of school hours support staff) were on duty to serve up the food and to clear up afterwards.

There was no music blaring out here either, just the excited chatter of children’s voices.

See the menu here if you want to know what we had to eat.

At twenty to two, coats, hats, scarves and gloves were put back on and we set off back to school for the penultimate afternoon.

The excitement was not over however. I had spent several hours wrapping up a book for each pupils as a present for Pere Noel to dish out during the afternoon.

When P.N. arrived he spoke fluent French with an thick Ariegeoise accent.. It had never crossed my mind that Santa would be able to speak foreign languages.

We started off in the Maternelle classroom and the awestruck children took it in turns to snatch their present from his hands.

The other three classrooms also received a visit with the coolest reception being received from the 10 -11 year olds.

Once Santa had gone, it was time to have cakes and juice to say goodbye to 3 pupils who are moving away from the area and who will therefore not be returning to us next term.