04 December 2025
The SAFTA French poetry competition was an exciting experience that we were grateful to be a part of. The competition consisted of a range of entries in several divisions. Our group entered the Years 7 and 8 division, all being in Year 7. We will now expand on the preparation, the result and the Distribution des Prix (awards night ceremony).
In the beginning, we were told about the poem by our French teacher, Madame Rek. What started as a class mini assignment to improve our speaking abilities turned into a group of three people: Sidhansh Arramraj, Advik Sinkar and Samuel Alcorn. All members of the group had memorised their respective paragraphs in the poem extremely quickly compared to the rest of the class. After pronunciation tips, our speaking and memorisation of the stanzas were down packed, but we weren’t very expressive. Our teacher advised us that actions could help persuade the judges our way. Those actions added expression, which the group was previously lacking.
A couple of months later, we found out that we got second place and were invited to the Distribution des Prix, SAFTA and Alliance Française Annual Prize Distribution Ceremony. It was a very proud moment for the three of us, as we stepped onto the stage and our names were called, representing St Peter’s College.
Samuel Alcorn, Sidhansh Arramraj, Advik Sinkar
Year 7 students of French
