FELICITATIONS A LAURENCE BARTHELEMY (ACT) ; SYLVAIN PEREIRA (VIC), GABRIELLE MUIR (VIC), ET TOFA (WA), LAUREATS DES LANGUAGE-PEDAGOGY BURSARIES 2026!
Thanks to the Fatfa Pedagogical Bursary, I was able to purchase about 30 books for the school library and the French classroom’s “coin de lecture”, to support our growing K–6 French program : picture books, bilingual books, simple graphic novels and Non-Fiction texts. I am hoping that the new titles will foster deep engagement and curiosity toward the French language and the various Francophone countries. It is also a way to extend cultural immersion beyond the classroom and into the family home when students borrow these books.
These resources will also serve as essential hooks for new units of study and will ensure the French language remains a visible part of our school’s daily culture.
I would like to thank the Fafta and the French Embassy for supporting my application. Merci beaucoup !
Laurence Barthelemy
Bonjour chers collègues ! A few months ago, I organised a French café experience for my Year 7 students. It was amazing! The goal was for them to
order a hot chocolate and croissants in French using their best manners. This allowed them to consolidate their knowledge of greetings, farewells, saying please and thank you and introduced them to new vocabulary for ordering food. Apart from the linguistic benefits, this was an opportunity for a full immersion into French culture! I provided berets to wear, played some classic French songs as well as more modern ones, and asked students to come to me, the French café owner, to order their food. I even taught them how to dunk their croissants in the hot choc like the French! Even though many thought it was gross and weird, they loved it and it promoted intercultural understanding. It sparked conversations about similarities and differences between France and Australia, and lead to some deep and meaningful reflection on otherness. We finished the lesson with a trivia on French culture, foods and new vocabulary used during the interactions, which was a great opportunity to evaluate learning. Students were highly engaged and found this a valuable experience. They’ve been asking me very often since then when we could do something like this again! I’m already thinking about another experience, maybe a French picnic with pâté, cheese and baguette?!
I would like to take the opportunity here to thank FAFTA for the bursary that helped me purchase everything I needed for this memorable classroom experience. Merci mille fois for supporting us!
Sylvain Pereira
Canterbury Girls’ Secondary College (CGSC) is a government all-girls school. We value language learning and the benefits it provides. French is a compulsory subject from Years 7 to 10 at CGSC and we aim to maintain our students’ enthusiasm for French. The FATFA pedagogical bursary we received in 2026 allowed us to purchase croissants and juice to run several before school French Club Breakfasts for VCE students which allowed students to speak French in a relaxed environment. This was especially beneficial in the lead up to the VCE oral examination. We also ran a crepe stall for all students in Term 3 and this was a popular and fun event with a variety of toppings on offer and students dressed French chefs
(photos attached)! We were also able to create a range of authentic listening texts and purchase some resources for our school library such as grammar books for autonomous practice and comic books (les bandes dessinées) which are popular. Overall , we were able to enhance student engagement with French. We have seen indications that the number of students choosing French in senior years is strong and there has been a very positive reception of French at school events such as open days/subject selection evenings. In addition, we will have a trip to France (Paris and the Loire Valley) in December with 19 students attending. We are grateful for this bursary which has allowed us to promote French and language learning in general over the course of this year.
Gabrielle Muir
The Teachers of French Association of Western Australia (TOFA) is grateful for the generous support provided through the FATFA Pedagogical
Bursary. The bursary funding of $500 was used towards the purchase of a set of professionally designed digital clipart illustrations representing key French explorers connected to the history of Western Australia. These high-quality illustrations were commissioned to support the development of a teaching resource for French language classrooms in Western Australia. The clipart will be incorporated into worksheets, educational activities, and authentic learning resources developed by TOFA to support the teaching of French language and culture, as well as the historical links between France and Western Australia. We hope that these materials will become a lasting part of TOFA’s resource collection and will be used by educators and students for many years to come. TOFA sincerely thanks FATFA for its support of this initiative and for its ongoing commitment to enhancing the teaching and learning of French in Australia.
Celine Decoux, on behalf of TOFA WA.