Middle School Students Shine at Francofete

Tuesday 10th April 2018, the silent city of Mdina woke up to the excitement of Year 8 Middle school students studying French as a foreign language. Each year, the Centre Franco-Maltais de Documentation et de Recherche organizes an activity related to the Journée de la Francophonie, celebrated annually on the 20th March. The French Embassy is an important entity which helps out in this activity as well. The aim of this activity was to use the French language in order to find clues of the past and present. This year this Francofête activity was a ‘Chasse au Trésor’, a Treasure Hunt in Mdina. This activity had students in Year 8 coming from different sectors of schools, i.e., State, Church and Independent. Each school could participate with a maximum of 15 students put into groups of 5 and accompanied by a teacher from their respective school. This year 21 schools participated from both Malta and Gozo, totalling the students in this event to 230.

All participating schools started off this Treasure Hunt from the playground outside Mdina gate and had to be finished in 50 minutes. After answering the questions in French about landmarks, buildings, etc, the students returned to the starting point with their answers, including photos, videos and a flier, and later proceeded to St Nicholas College Middle School in Rabat for the closing ceremony including the presentation of awards.

St Margaret College Cospicua Middle school won this year’s Francofête, placing first by gathering all 100 points. The students were guided by their teacher of French Ms Ingrid Sciberras Bray and with the assistance of two other teachers of the same school, Ms Amanda Zahra and Mr Ivan Gulia. The school was awarded books and other gifts, together with the winning trophy, which the students and the teachers loved. This was such an enriching experience for the students.

This great achievement of this Francofête Chasse au Trésor was well recognised by Mrs Michelle Muscat who shared her experience of the French language as well, HE the French Ambassador Mme. Béatrice le Fraper du Hellen and the Education Officer for French – Mrs Doreen Farrugia. Also present for this event were Mr Gaetano Bugeja (Director for Learning & Assessment Programmes), Dr Mario Pace (Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Education), Mr Ian Mifsud (Director at the Secretariat for Catholic Education), Mr David Agius (Shadow Minister for Citizens’ Rights, Social Dialogue, Equality, NGO’s Consumer Protection, Youth & Sports) and Chev. David Busuttil (President of the Alliance Française de Malte).