By Max Davies
Two students from St Patrick’s Primary School, Kilmore, took part in the finals of the Alliance Française Berthe Mouchette Competition, a French poetry recital competition for students who study the language.
Last year, St Patrick’s year five student Gabriella Luci made it to the finals.
This year, St Patrick’s Primary School had 70 entrants across years three to six, with year three students Chloe Rees and Erin Lawson participating in the finals on August 21.
Year three students had a choice between two French poems, which they practiced and prepared, with Chloe and Erin working with the school’s French teacher Quentin Berlatier to perfect their pronunciation.
“The girls started with hand actions to get the accents right and they’d come to me everyday asking ‘how do I say this’ and ‘how do I say that’ just to try and get it right,” Mr Berlatier said.
“These two worked really hard to learn the poem perfectly – Chloe would come in early everyday to get everything right.”
The Berthe Mouchette Competition is a statewide competition, with more than 7000 students entering across Victoria.
Entrants were required to recite their chosen poem once before being selected for the final, where they were then required to recite the poem live to a panel of judges via Zoom.
When reflecting on the experience of this year’s competition, Erin said she had practiced a lot by reciting the poem to her sister many times.
Chloe said it wasn’t difficult to learn the poems and particularly enjoyed reading her chosen poem to the judges.
Mr Berlatier said the school was building on the strengths from last year’s competition.
“The fact that we did so well last year was part of why we’ve done it again. We’re very proud of the girls for getting to where they are,” he said.
“We had one finalist last year and this year we’ve got two. The girls were too young to compete last year but I’m sure they would’ve done very well if they had competed.”
Mr Berlatier said the difference in the girls’ recital of the poems was how hard they focused on the pronunciation, with extra effort being put in to learn tough words.
The final results are expected to be announced in coming weeks. Chloe, Erin and the school hope to continue to participate in the competition when it is next held in 2023.