UAE school celebrates La Fête de la Francophonie

GEMS Modern Academy hosted the region’s first French inter-school competition, La Fête de la Francophonie.

Dubai: The month of March marks an annual international celebration of the French-speaking world. While the official Journée international de la Francophonie (International Francophonie Day) is celebrated on March 20, 2023, the entire month is devoted to exploring the cultural diversity of the Francophone world.

In honour of this month, GEMS Modern Academy hosted the very first edition of ‘La Fête de la Francophonie’, consisting of 10 participating schools, both local and foreign, with close to 100 participants, celebrating in harmony the lingua franca, the French language. The event that took place recently at GEMS Modern Academy, honoured the numerous ways in which the language may be expressed, including song, poetry, culture, art, dance, and film.

The various compétitions included Chantaisie (Singing), Récitation de la Poésie (Poetry), Génie en Herbe (Quiz), Dictée (Dictation), Dis-Moi Dix-Mots (Art) et Festival Francofilm (Filmmaking). GEMS Modern Academy came first place in two competitions and second place in three. As the host school, the trophy was generously given away to the school that stood 2nd on the leader board, GEMS New Millennium School, Al Khail.

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Les Sept étoiles, the event’s organizing crew, consisted of 7 students of ages 14-17, who had put in 6 months of hard work into hosting this event with minimal contribution from the teachers’ side. They had a busy time hauling everything together, but in the end, it was rewarding to see the smiles on everyone’s faces, the powerful school spirit and the racing emotions at the prize distribution.

The participants ranged from Beacon Private School in Bahrain to Mayo College in India, each bringing to the stage their own unique talent. The event was attended by several dignitaries from Alliance Française and Institut Français, including the director, Said Nourine and the Attaché de Coopération for French at the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs, Amelie Lombardini Morin.

“Organizing this event was a great learning experience. I noticed a lot of little things which can go wrong during an event of such kind, but this helped me to prepare myself to organize more events in the future. I hope to see this event become a legacy at Modern”, said Trisha, a member of the organizing team.

Everything was entirely student-led, from managing the budget, making the logo, sending the invite and even conducting meetings with the schools to clarify any queries. “There were many ups and downs throughout the way, and at one point, we were even told we couldn’t organize the event anymore, but we were determined to not give up.”, said Pranav, another core team member.

These students’ hard work certainly paid off, making ‘La Fête de la Francophonie’ a legacy at GEMS Modern Academy. Their principal, Nargish Khambatta and their French teacher, Fatema Poonawala could not have been prouder of them for executing the event to perfection.

This article was contributed by Keshika Vasuja, intern at The Brew News, and student of GEMS Modern Academy.

La Fête de la Francophonie UAE La Fête de la Francophonie UAE