Congratulations to Advanced Higher French pupils Eve C (pictured) and Matthew G (S6) who achieved great success at The Jacqueline Munro-Lafon Essay Prize 2021 on yesterday.

Honouring the 100th birthday of Madame Jacqueline Munro-Lafron, both pupils submitted essays written in French which presented a reflection on life and society from 1921 to 2021 in France and Scotland.

Madame Munro-Lafon was born in Paris on 27 January 1921 and experienced huge changes during her life living in France and Scotland. During her years studying journalism, she had a particular interest in demonstrating for the rights of workers and women. In her working life she promoted French culture throughout Scotland in her work for the French Institute in Glasgow.

In the final of the competition, Matthew was awarded the winners prize of £500 and his essay will be printed in the annual Bulletin of the Franco-Scottish Society. In addition, Eve's essay received highly commended status and was awarded an Amazon gift card.

Mrs Lamont, Head of Modern Languages said: “I am extremely proud of Matthew and Eve. They produced reflective and thought provoking pieces of writing in French which show a very high level of flair and accuracy. This is a very prestigious competition and the standard of French writing and creative content was extremely high."

Eve is also the first pupil to go through the The SQA Scottish Baccalaureate in Languages this year where she has created a website examining the way regional and minority languages are perceived by speakers and non-speakers in the United Kingdom. 

Commenting on her presentation, Mr Campbell, Assistant Head of Modern Languages said: “Eve has an excellent understanding of the data she gathered, and she was able to skillfully answer our questions moving between sections of her very well organised website easily. 

“Her strengths from Modern Studies and the transferable skills she has developed through her studies of humanities really enabled her to investigate and evaluate her chosen area, whilst also learning more about cultural ideas and perhaps stereotypes. She has clearly acquired a deeper understanding of minority languages and the issues they face, becoming much more familiar with the differing viewpoints that people in various countries have regarding these.”