Author, Gwen Brookes, joins Prep for European Day of Languages

As part of the EHS Pre-Prep and Prep European Day of Languages celebrations, we were honoured to be able to welcome, via Zoom link, Gwen Brookes. Gwen is the author of a well-known series of French story books for children who are learning French. Titles include: Bonjour Berthe and Berthe fait une pizza. Gwen told us all about her life and what inspired her to write books in French. 

Gwen is a retired primary school teacher who starting writing books for her students. With the help of the Language Ambassadors (Gurbani, Uthara and Zara), girls from Reception to Year Six asked Gwen a range of questions about her life as an author and the characters in her stories. The winning question was from Sophie S in Year One who asked “Did you learn to speak French in school?”. Gwen’s answer was a little surprising as, while she did learn French at school, she thought that she was not very good at it as others in her class were so much better! Gwen has published some of her stories in Spanish too and she has been learning Portuguese for the past 20 years. A special ‘merci’ to Gwen for taking the time to join us. She is a true inspirational linguist!  

The girls in Pre-Prep and Prep are now challenged to take part in a competition to either produce a poster or compose a song related to this year’s theme of European Day of Languages – Languages Open Hearts and Minds. Details will be posted in the French classroom on Seesaw. Bonne chance!