Outdoor French Class
Help With Homework
Activites through French
Approach
Our Head of French this year is Grace Tempany. Grace’s approach
to Language teaching is firmly rooted in the communicative context. Use of authentic texts (newspaper articles, song
texts, poems) is a regular feature of her classes. Students can expect to be challenged in a supported environment. A
set of oral notes will be provided for students attending the summer course. These will be of great use to students
when preparing for the Leaving Cert. oral exam which accounts for 25% of the marks at Higher Level. As a result
students would be expected to speak as much French as possible in class time in order to maximize exposure to the
language. On top of this students receive daily, individual oral classes for approximately 20 minutes.
Course
Throughout the duration of our camps, members will benefit from our intensive French revision course. The course is
geared towards the Leaving Certificate focusing on oral, aural and written French; written by Dr. Veronique Gauthier. Dr.
Gauthier is an experienced teacher (with eleven years experience in Ireland) and has published academic articles on language
learning. She has also worked as a Leaving Certificate oral examiner for several years, in particular in the Institute of
Education, Dublin
Class
The duration of each class is 2.5 hours.
Teacher : Pupil Ratio
The maximum number of students per class is 16. This ratio puts the focus on the pupils, ensuring that all camp members
receive personal attention and quality tuition.
Oral French
Every day students will partake in a mock oral examination for approximately 20 minutes. The orals are conducted by
our assistant French teachers and will be geared towards the Leaving Certificate oral exam. These have proved popular
with students as they are excellent practice for the exam.
Level
The Academy offers an "ordinary" and "higher" level course. Groups will be streamed according to which level each
student intends to sit the Leaving Certificate course and following an assesment upon their arrival at the camp.
Previous examination results may also be taken into account.
Syllabus
The course is organised around modules, each focusing on one topic, and promotes communicative proficiency, language
awareness and cultural awareness.
Staff
We are currently recruiting qualified and experienced French teachers and assistant French teachers.
