Friday 6th March 2020
History of the SES French Exchange
The academic year of 2019/2020 has been historic considering the Modern Foreign Languages department, with two of our exchange programmes hitting big anniversary milestones; marking the 60th year of the German Exchange (read more here) and the 25th anniversary of the Russian exchange (read more here).In celebration of this, our Schools Archivist, James Buckman, has unearthed the history of some of our exchange programmes, beginning with the French Exchange.Written History:Stamford High SchoolLynda Osborn had always wanted to visit France, and so was thrilled to learn one morning that a French Exchange had been arranged for her. She would stay in the home of a French girl for three weeks starting on 30th March 1966. She wrote an article on this visit which is in the 1966 SHS Magazine. Lynda enjoyed her time abroad so much, that she was enthusiastic when the French family invited her back for Easter 1967.Stamford SchoolIn 1984, Peter Blackburn joined Stamford School as a teacher of Modern Languages. He had been an assistant d’Auplais at the city of Rodez in France during his student days and the experience had left him with many personal contacts. One of his last contributions to Stamford School was to initiate an exchange with a French School at Aigrefeulles near La Rochelle. The first French Exchange Trip took place from 2nd July-13th July 1988. Mr Blackburn left the School on the same year.The French Exchanges experienced a slight lapse, only to be restarted in 2015.Students' thoughts from the time:Browse the Stamford Endowed Schools' digital archives yourself, here.