Belgian students enjoyed a week at CPC

Belgian students and their CPC exchange counterparts.

A visit by a group of Belgian students and their teachers to CPC during the week continued the growing connections the Kilcullen school has been making since joining the Erasmus+ mobility scheme last year, writes Brian Byrne. The visitors were from CPC's partner school in Namur Belgium.

In addition to taking part in CPC class and other school activities with host exchange local students, they learned about Kilcullen's historical background including a visit to the Old Kilcullen original monastic site. Their visit also coincided with the CPC TY students' annual musical presentation and they all enjoyed the performance of Grease and the outstanding talent of everyone involved.

A trip by the group to Dublin included a session at Europe House where there's an interactive role-play opportunity to learn about the role of MEPs and how decisions are made in the European Parliament. The packed itinerary for the day also included a look at the Book of Kells in the iconic Long Room at Trinity College Dublin and afterwards a tour of the Dáil and Seanad.

Representing the Belgian group, Antoine Hupat and Amandine Boulanger told the Diary it was their first visit to Ireland, and their preconceptions were of 'a green country ... with lots of sheep'. "I also expected lots of ginger-haired people," Antoine said. Their initial experiences of the Irish school was 'much quieter' in the classrooms than theirs in Namur and 'very friendly' Kilcullen students. "I like the uniforms here, we don't have that in our school," Amandine said. "I also think you have a lot of art options here which we do not, like the Grease performances. You have more sport, cookery and construction classes, and civic education as a class."

Antoine and Amandine.

This was Amandine's second Erasmus trip, last year she went to Spain. "I think I like Ireland better," she said diplomatically. "Ireland is really relaxing." It was Antoine's first time on an Erasmus exchange and he's very positive about doing another. With one proviso: "I want more boys on the next one, I'm the only boy amongst all girls on this visit."

"Eleven girls and one boy, you're really lucky," Amandine commented drily. Meantime, though, Antoine did get a chance to play football with the Irish hosts, which made him 'very happy'. "I like sports."

Amandine said a visit to Kildare town and learning about the Saint Brigid connection was amongst the best parts of the trip. Looking to her future, she plans to study Criminology in university, which will include social science, economy and politics modules. "There will also be law and migration, and I've picked Criminology because I don't want to be doing the same thing every day afterwards." Antoine is planning to study Computer Science. "If I can, I'd then like to go on and specialise in cybersecurity in the army."

A reciprocal exchange trip by the Kilcullen student hosts will be made at the end of the month, which will include a visit to the European Parliament in Brussels.

(Photos courtesy CPC.)

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