In Term 3, we welcomed two Swiss students into Year 12. Gaetan Moser and Cyril Albelda donned a school uniform (for the first time ever, as students in much of Europe wear mufti for school!) and became part of the Roncalli community for a period of seven weeks.

The boys stayed with Yannick Miller and Lucas Cummings and were immersed in family life, with a view to improving their (already good) spoken English. I would like to thank the families publicly for going the extra mile with their guests – both visiting boys were taken on amazing outings to local and not-so-local places of interest, getting a real taste of South Island life. To finish off their exchange, Gaetan and Cyril will spend a couple of days in Auckland with the rest of the Swiss Exchange Group before returning home.

In return, our two Year 12 French students, Yannick and Lucas, will be travelling to Switzerland for seven weeks at the end of the year. They will experience winter and Christmas with their host families, and will surely come back with hugely increased confidence in speaking and understanding French!

Merci bien Gaetan et Cyril – you have been great ambassadors for your country and we trust you have come to know and appreciate something of the life we have in New Zealand. Thanks also to the teachers who willingly accommodated these boys into their classes, and to Mr Comeau for being so receptive to this new endeavour to give real purpose to the study of a foreign language.