On Monday 17 June at 6.30pm we welcomed our six French students from the Centre International de Valbonne in Provence. They had been traveling for almost 40 hours and were greeted with the usual polar blast that Dunedin seems to turn on every time our French visitors arrive. They have settled in well with their host families. On Saturday they will attend the Year 11 Formal at Larnach Castle. The students involved and their host partners are:

Marie Cauvin – Sacha McConnon

Eglantine Durand – Charlotte Barker

Vahine Laurent – Emma Davis

Maëlys Clerget – Chloe Heineke

Sophie Fournie Rudholm – Samantha Newstead

Leon Sangster – Aramis Fitzgerald (OBHS)

So far the students have attended sessions at the Otago Museum and Planetarium, the Dunedin Art Gallery, been ice skating, checked out street art and op shops, and had a welcome dinner with host families at the Wong Gok. This is a reciprocal exchange, so these students will be with us for six weeks and our students join them in France for six weeks in December-January.

As an added bonus this year, we also have three Spanish students, Gabriela Sanchez Ganuza, Jimena Pertejo Garcia and Paula Cendra who are being hosted by Grace Gardner, Katherine Lewis and Millie O’Neill, as part of an exchange organised by John McGlashan College. They too are joining in the French programme and adding to the rich variety of languages we hear around Columba.