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Welcome to the latest newsletter from the Bristol Bordeaux Partnership (BBP) - February's edition. Today we reflect on the recent AGM, the visit of Bordeaux students to Bristol and our work with UWE. |
BBP AGMThe BBP AGM was held at City Hall, with event being chaired by The Lord Mayor, Andrew Varney (pictured here with the chair of BBP Mike Healey, toasting the event with, of course, a glass of Bordeaux).. As well as the formal AGM standing agenda items, such as the financial and membership reports, we reviewed a busy 2024 - including our members visit to Bordeaux, a wine tasting evening, the placement of University students in schools in each city, helping City Hall with events like Twinning Tuesday, and our ongoing activities looking to promote further links between our 2 cities (more on that later) - and we looked forward to more twinning activities in 2025. We were also joined by our guest speaker, Sally Daniels from the Faculty of Environment, Technology and Architecture at University of West of England (UWE).. Sally gave a fascinating talk about the recent visit to Bristol of students from Bordeaux's ENSAP university Architecture department (pictured are the ENSAP students with The Lord Mayor) and the plans she has to repeat and reciprocate the visit in future. As a Guest Lecturer: Ecole Nationale Superieure D’Architecture (ENSA), Bordeaux; Sally has been instrumental in developing a relationship between the two prestigious institutions The link to the UWE report on the visit and the student's activities can be found here And of course at the AGM we all celebrated another good year of twinning activities with a glass of Bordeaux. Here's to another great year of twinning in 2025. |
Mini Assistants - visit of Bordeaux University students to BristolFebruary saw the arrival of seven teacher training students from Bordeaux University.. As in previous years, working with Zoe Gibbons, the International Twinning Officer at City Hall, BBP arranged for these students to spend two weeks volunteering in Bristol primary schools, helping local children to learn more French. We also arranged for them to live locally with hosts connected to the schools. As well as their time teaching French to the students of Compass Point Primary, Dolphin Primary, Southville Primary, Elmlea Juniors, Glenfrome, Brentry Primary and St Werbergs Primary schools, the students took advantage of their time here to see Bristol Bath, London and in one case Birmingham. The students were accompanied for some of the time by Marie-France Burgain and Gabriela Seijas Arce from Bordeaux University - checking to ensure all was OK! BBP arranged for the students to visit City Hall for a reception with the Lord Mayor, Andrew Varney.(pictured). We also arranged a visit to Bristol University's School for Modern Languages for a chat with Chloe Laborde, Deputy Director for Language Placements, and some Bristol University students due to work or study soon in France so they could share experiences and tips (pictured). And finally BBP took the students, Marie France, Zoe and Chloe for a celebratory meal at The Watershed (pictured) We look forward to repeating the event in 2026 for another group of Bordeaux students. |
UWE and potential student placements in BordeauxOur chair Mike Healey and Secretary Mark Atherton arranged a meeting with Karan Vickers-Hulse and Alastair Law from University of the West of England's (UWE) Education department. We were accompanied by Marie-France Burgain and Gabriela Seijas Arce from Bordeaux University (pictured). We discussed the existing Mini Assistant Scheme arrangement for students from Bristol University and how we wanted to extend the scheme to students from UWE as well. We had a really productive meeting and the two Universities are now working on developing a formal Memorandum of Understanding between UWE and Bordeaux University. Fingers crossed we will be sending UWE students to Bordeaux soon. |
Bristol Community FestivalThe Bristol Community Festival is taking place 22 March 2025 to 5 April 2025 in community spaces across the city and will celebrate residents and voluntary organisations making a positive change in their communities. Details of the events can be found at Bristol Community Festival - Can Do Bristol BBP is taking part in this year's Festival and is hosting a series of online webinars with community leaders to discuss the possibilities of international collaboration. You can find the details Bristol Bordeaux community webinar: Education, Sustainability, Innovation, Culture and Business. - Can Do Bristol |
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Finally a quick thank you to all BBP members who have renewed their membership for another year and a gentle reminder to those you yet to renew. Details of how to renew can be found at the 'membership' section of the BBP website Bristol Bordeaux Partnership – Twinning Business Culture Education |
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We hope that these updates on the recent activities of BBP are of interest and may even prompt you to want to become more involved and to help us with some of these initiatives. If you want to know more, please reply to this email. We'd love to be able to spread the message re twinning in general and Bristol's links with Bordeaux in particular. A bientôt! Mike Healey (Chair of BBP) and Mark Atherton (Secretary) for Bristol Bordeaux Partnership www.bristolbordeaux.org |