Broadening horizons

Councillor Andi Rivett and I handed over £1,210 to Rye College on Wednesday, April 24 to help the school with their trip to Montreuil-sur-Mer next month. We have been singing, mainly at the Waterworks but also for a private party where guests were encouraged to make donations rather than bring presents and have collected these funds over the past year.

Although not officially twinned with Montreuil-sur-Mer, both of us visited the town back in November 2022, and their French counterparts came to Rye last year staying at the Mermaid, and were given a tour of Rye and a cry by our town crier. Since then, we have stayed very much in touch and created three pilot projects. Firstly, an exchange between school children.

Lead French teacher at Rye College, Maylis Ruhla, said: “We are very thankful for your generous contribution and all the help you have provided for our exchange trip to Montreuil-sur-Mer. Back in 2023, we were contacted by Rebekah to discuss an exchange with Montreuil-sur-Mer. Very quickly, I got into contact with my French counterpart and thanks to Rebekah Gilbert’s precious help organised two trips.

“The purpose of the exchange is for the students to become global citizens by exchanging with French students, discovering their school life, doing a range of activities to develop their language skills and also learn about our common history with France. Our students have been allocated a penfriend and were given their contact details so they could exchange emails before meeting them in real life.

“In about three weeks’ time, we will be departing from Rye College with some of our year 9 and 10 students to go to Montreuil-sur-Mer where we will be welcomed by our partner school Lycée Eugène-Woillez and spend the following two days completing a range of visits and activities so our students can create international friendships.

“These will include a visit of Le Touquet which is famously known as Paris Plage (Paris beach), attending a lesson with their penfriend, visiting different areas of Montreuil and a special welcome from the town hall with a goodbye party at the end of their trip.

“Following this, the French lycée will be visiting us here in Rye during June. We have some exciting activities for them such as a welcome from Rye Town Hall, a tour with the town crier, a murder mystery treasure hunt around Rye, sports games, a visit to Battle Abbey and a final goodbye dinner at the Mermaid Inn. We are very excited about the trip coming up and are looking forward to representing our school, Rye town and England whilst visiting France.”

In addition, a small cohort from Rye will be visiting Montreuil in September to help them celebrate their 80th anniversary of the liberation after the second world war. Dr Anthony Kimber is leading the organisation of the visit.

Lastly, Judith and Martin Blincow, having visited Montreuil earlier this month, have established a firm friendship with Le Patio restaurant and hotel in Montreuil, and are working up an exchange with their staff so that they can learn about different cuisines, service, wines and much more as part of training and development of staff at the Mermaid Inn.

We are delighted to have helped others in the town to go forward with these ventures. Whilst this is not an official twinning, by spreading the workload it means that it isn’t one person responsible for all the planning, and that there is no cost to the public purse, because everything is funded independently. I know when I was at Thomas Peacocke school, as it was then, having an opportunity to visit other countries left a great impression, and I hope the students this year have a great time and experience.

We are already looking at how to help next year’s cohort repeat the experience. I hope that we can create more projects between other businesses, sports and art clubs to extend this hand of friendship across the Channel, in the spirit of the entente cordiale.

Image Credits: Rye College .