Vocational High School Masterpiece: An Opportunity to Study English

In Vocational High School, we study English. At the Jean Vigo High School in Milla, learning this living language is combined with sustainable development, cooking classes and, above all, masterpieces. Carine Ouallet, an English teacher at the establishment, talks to her kitchen colleague Loïc Solinhac about the plan for the educational café.

Carine Ouallet has been an English teacher at the Jean Vigo Vocational High School in Millau (12) since 2015. Unlike most modern language teachers in vocational high schools, bilingual and literature teachers, Carine Ouallet only teaches English for CAP. and vocational undergraduate students. She also engages in reinforced support hours and Masterpiece hours in co-teaching with her kitchen colleague. At the same time, he is part of a group of language trainers living at the LB of the Toulouse Academy. In this position, he leads and contributes to training Languages ​​site at Toulouse Academy LP As a teacher.

You started a project with your students around Masterpiece, what was it?

We wanted to engage with my kitchen colleague Loïc Solinhac in this new course, the masterpiece of the Professional Baccalaureate Hospitality Catering class in the 2020/2022 cycle. Therefore, we launched an integrated and interdisciplinary program that came directly from students following a collective reflection on the needs of their profession. Focusing on the theme of sustainable development, our students set up an aroma whirl for the aroma needs of our high school’s practice cafeteria. This approach is supported by composting kitchen waste from our restaurantAtlanta.

We have incorporated English in this program in various ways. By starting work on the common thread of the masterpiece – research related to sustainable development around concepts Sustainable development, Zero wasteAnd Global warming. By arranging meals in English at the app’s restaurant. Take every opportunity to practice the language during the project – designing menus in English, writing thank-you notes and Christmas greeting cards, working on communication materials in the target language… and preparing for oral from Masterpiece. Although the production was in French, it was an opportunity to make connections with English, especially through theater workshops.

And for the new promotion?

It is natural for 1st students to want to pursue their new promotion^Time Bac Pro for the 2023/2025 cycle. The students want to continue the work started by their predecessors by considering the automatic irrigation of aromatic spiral. In order to deepen our research on the theme of sustainable development, it is appropriate to look at the question of waste sorting – in the company, but also in the hotel sector. In order to integrate modern languages ​​into this new project, and more specifically English, another English-speaking meal was arranged with members of the Millau/Bridlington duo team. This enabled the dining room and kitchen to be served entirely in English. It was an opportunity for students to work around the Irish holiday of St. Patrick. Business advocacy work was undertaken to allow student staff to serve meals in English. The student chefs were able to work on the vocabulary of ingredients and explain the different stages of each recipe in English.

I imagine you must have established several partnerships?

For the program undertaken in the 2023/2025 cycle, we have called for various partnerships to maintain the commitment and motivation of our students. Millavois Association Makes compost: It supports the class in waste minimization, sorting and recovery work. there Community of Communes Millau Grands Reasons: He participates in the construction of our composting site and is responsible for the purchase of 3 tanks: a distribution tank, a maturation tank and a dry material tank. The Departmental Syndicate of Household Waste (SYDOM) in Aveyron: its contributors carried out an activity on the “TRI-Tour” truck to inform students about sorting methods. The Millau/Bridlington duo: During Saint-Patrick’s Day we proposed to the team members to participate in a meal served in English from start to finish. And of course the establishment’s professional teachers: the service teacher who supervised the food but also the DNL cooking teacher Didier Rivmel, who participated in the program and intervenes in the European English / catering section.

What do your students “get” from such a program?

Thanks to this masterpiece, our students were able to acquire many psychological skills – self-esteem, socialization, empowerment, commitment, respect for others, respect for rules, initiative, sharing, teamwork, cooperation, mutual assistance, contribution, care focus, autonomy, perseverance, resilience. Some of these skills are particularly noticeable in modern languages ​​- gaining confidence, listening, persuasiveness, argumentation, reasoning, conversational awareness. These skills are essential and will allow the student to build the foundation of his future career.

Are they investing in the project?

While dining with the city’s twinning committee, the student staff prepared the event from A to Z with their English teacher and their assignment teacher: decorating the room in the colors of Ireland, an atmospheric slide show with background music evoking Celtic culture, menus written in English. For their part, the student chefs were able to brainstorm with their DNL cooking teacher to create a meal on the theme, coleslaw salad as a starter, traditional Irish stew (Irish stew) as a main course and sweet cream vanilla ice cream and its Irish whiskey liqueur… of course! From starters to dessert, the students greeted the restaurant’s customers and served them dishes in English. The guests enjoyed these exchanges and the students realized the importance of languages ​​in their professional field. This type of event makes it possible to confirm the place of modern languages ​​in the hotel and catering industries and this training in real conditions allowed students to practice English in a real situation.

Interview by Lilia Ben Hamuda