Schull Community College

The French teachers in the school are Valerie O'Connor,Karen Sheehan, Katriona Regan and Niamh Woods.

Schull Community College recognizes the importance of demonstrating that French is a living language and that all efforts must be made to teach French as a “real” language.
With this in mind the French teachers take a group of students to France for one week on an exchange programme each year. The exchange programme with College La Sine in Vence near Nice in the South of France enters its third year in 2008.

As part of the exchange programme students spend a week with their French exchange partner experiencing French family life and sampling the culture. Students from Schull also go on excursions during the course of the exchange to see some of what the beautiful Cote d’Azur has to offer. In 2007 destinations included Cannes, Monaco and the beautiful village of St. Paul de Vence to name but a few.
On their return visit students from College La Sine spend a week in Schull and surrounding areas experiencing some true West Cork hospitality.
The French Department in Schull Community College fully understands the need to build students’ confidence in all aspects of the language learning process. With this in mind the EuroLanguages software programme is used in the college’s language laboratory helping students to develop their listening skills – a vital component of the Junior and Leaving Certificate programmes.

In 2007 fifth year students of French travelled to the Gate Cinema in Cork to watch the screening of Le Grand Voyage as part of the Cork French Film Festival. This proved very popular with the students. The cultural division of the Irish Film Institute continues to work closely with the French Teachers Association in sourcing films for use in the classroom and building resources to help use these films as a tool in language teaching and learning