A work trip to Faro publié le 16/11/2023  - mis à jour le 01/12/2023

Between October 15 to 22, 2023, eighteen French education staff from La Rochelle and its surroundings had the opportunity to fly to Faro, Portugal, to discover the Portuguese educational system, to visit companies and learn more about the Algarve culture.

The “La Rochelle CLEE” (the “Local Council for Schools and Companies in La Rochelle”) was initiated by Mister Frimont, the “Saint Exupéry” high school headmaster. The aims of this council are to get to know the pupils and their school guidance, the adequate structures to welcome them, while developing pedagogical practices as well as local and international exchanges. Our French coordinators were Rodolphe Damon, the Erasmus+ referent -he is a History and Geography teacher- and Florence Zornitta, who teaches English.
During this busy week, we visited six different schools (both high schools and professional ones). We learnt a lot about the similarities and differences between our two countries. The teachers who welcomed us were all willing to develop school projects between our two countries.

In the same way, the different companies which we visited were all pleased at the idea of welcoming pupils from our school in the future.
The Algarve region has proved to be a beautiful discovery, as we learnt that it is the ideal Portuguese region of slow cities, promoting local sustainability. For instance, we went on a solar-powered electric boat to visit the lagoon of Ria Formosa in Faro, which is a protected area for birds and fish.

This trip was incredibly rich, both from a professional and human point of view. We experienced the life our pupils would have there. We were very well accommodated and hosted by our local partner, WakeUp Projects

. It allowed us to enjoy an extraordinary time to create contacts between each other, be they Portuguese or French.