Alexandre, Théo, Mali, Maxime, Lou-Anne, Lilou, Rachel
We thought this was a nice place to take the group photo; it's the main entrance of the church in Saint-Gervais-sous-Meymont. We have just come from the Maison du Parc, which is the headquarters of the PNR Livradois-Forez, where we interviewed the deputy Director and two of the development workers. We wanted to find out what the Parc is and does, and how it helped the town council of Courpière in its project of rebuilding the rampart and belvedere (the PNR was in charge of getting EU funding for the project, which, apparently, is a long and complicated process).
We found our trip very useful and interesting and fun. We were warmly welcomed and we were given lots of beautiful posters showing the different activities supported by the nature parc.
The posters make local people and visitors to the area aware of what
the PNR does. The nature parc authorities help boost the local
economy by attracting tourists (via its website) and helping people
set up businesses; they protect Nature through their ecological and
educational initiatives; they help local councils and associations
embelish heritage sights especially in the historic centres of small
towns. Basically, the PNR plays a fundamental role in the sustainable
development of the Livradois-Forez!
Our visit to the Maison du Parc inspired our next class project: we will carry out a nature study of our school buildings and grounds. We will then ask the PNR for expert advice on how we can encourage greater biodiversity within the grounds of the ISP (by putting up bird boxes, planting certain types of bushes, etc.). Mali, our class naturalist and bird-watcher, will be in charge of this project!
Mali writes:
ReplyDeleteOur little trip to Saint-Gervais-sous-Meymont was very interesting. I did not know that the PNR does all these things for our region and I love how it makes sure that the inhabitants get involved in its projects; that way everyone does something to make their living space better, like more dynamic, more pleasant, more attractive. And that is something I really like to know about. Mr Cournu and Mme Court and their colleagues gave us a warm welcome and it was very kind of them to spend some of their time explaining what the PNR does. As a conclusion, I would say this trip was very enjoyable and helpful in making things clearer; we now understand what the PNR and the EU does for the Livradois-Forez. And it even inspired us to protect the flora and fauna around our school!
Maximilien writes:
ReplyDeleteI found making a video for a regional inter-school competition very interesting because it was different from all the other things we usually do at school.
We had to go to a number of places to film. Had we stayed at school, it would have been rather boring I think, and the project would have been poor in information and visuals. Some of us had to record the video and edit it, others had to contact Mme le Maire to ask if we could interview her. Mali made small animated characters who explained stuff to help the viewers understand better the information. There were a lot of creative ideas. I had to do the storyboard and help those who had to edit the video to insert the right images at the right moment. I was proud of myself because I’ve never done that before; I spent a lot of time on it and I think the result was pretty good.
The project was a little time-consuming; we even had to catch up a couple of Spanish and English classes we missed.
We were lucky to be able to interview important people like the people in charge of the video project at the Région Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, the Mayor of Courpière, and the nice people at the PNR Livradois-Forez.
Our visit to the Maison du Parc inspired us for our next project because we met someone there who can help us improve the biodiversity around our school!
Lou-Anne writes:
ReplyDeleteTaking part in the video project "l’Europe agit dans ma Région" will help me to organize myself better because it required time and concentration. I also learnt team work; I think we do not work enough in this way in “normal” classes (it is one of the reasons I chose to be a member of the European section). I learnt about a lot of things, for example about European funding. I’m sure that will help me later (during SES lessons for example).
There is a good atmosphere in our group; I found our outings really pleasant as well as interesting (when we met the Mayor for example).
It's a pity we didn't have much time to edit the video or get to see the final result before it was sent off to the competition organizers. The people we interviewed answered in detail our questions, but the video had to be just 5 minutes long, so we could not include everything that was said. The interviews were sometimes a bit stressful because we had to be on our best behaviour!
Dimitri writes:
ReplyDeleteAt the beginning of our project, two people visited us in our class. They explained to us that we could make a video to show the importance of the European Union in our region (Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes). We chose to make a video to explain how the European Union has helped the town of Courpière (where our school is).
We interviewed the mayor of Courpière, who gave a lot of specific and important information about the Belvedere. The Belvedere of Courpière was rebuilt with the financial help of the European Union.
During the making of the video, we faced bugs and problems with the transfer and editing, production and subtitling, with coordination, and we had some absentees (Théo for the interview and myself during the trip to the PNR). However, despite all these problems, I find that our video is a success, interesting and I hope we will win this competiton!
Théo writes:
ReplyDeleteTwo people from Clermont-Ferrand paid us a visit. They asked us if we wanted to take part in a competition: we had to create a video to show the actions of the European Union in our region.
So we created a video to show how the EU has helped Courpière by subsidising the reconstruction of part of the ramparts and the belvedere. We interviewed the mayor of Courpière and asked her about the project. It is important for tourism and the historical heritage of the town.
We went to the “Maison du Parc” of the PNR (Parc Naturel Régional) and asked them how they had contributed to the project too. They had helped Courpière do the paperwork to ask for European finance.
We had some good moments making the video and I hope that we will win the competition!
Lilou Degoille writes:
ReplyDeleteThe CIED (Centre d'Information Europe Direct) of Clermont-Ferrand suggested to my Euro section class a few months back that we make a video about a development project financed by the EU in Courpière. The title was “Europe acts in my Region”. It had to be five minutes long. The project we studied was the reconstruction of the historic belvedere in Courpière; it was finished in April 2018 and inaugurated in March 2019.
I enjoyed filming our interviews of the mayor who welcomed us to the town hall of Courpière (each pupil put a question to her). She explained in detail how the project was initiated and completed.
We took plenty of photos of the belvedere and the rampart on which it is built (the ramparts were also rebuilt, but that was a different project). We researched the history of the ramparts and visited the parc which is below the ramparts. The development project is good for tourism (and therefore also for the local economy) and good from a conservation point of view. Of course, it also makes the town more pleasant for the inhabitants and they can be even more proud of living there now!
I appreciated too visiting the “Maison du Parc”, headquarters of the “PNR” (the Livradois-Forez regional Nature parc). We went there to interview the deputy director and two of the development workers about how the “PNR” helped the local authorities of Courpière fill in the various documents to ask for European funding (it's very complicated apparently!).
It was fun working as a team, even if we did not always agree with each other! We did not have enough time to do things as we would have liked, but even if the result is not perfect, at least we made tis video from start to finish. I’m very proud to have shared this experience with my class!