“Bonjour, Football!”: A Medal-worthy Journalistic Adventure

With the ball in their court, our four fourth-grade classes recently conquered the field of journalism—creating their own newspaper from start to finish in the span of a week, centered entirely around soccer. Responsible for designing, writing, and illustrating the project, this victory was no small feat.

Kick off.

Students started the week alongside Sophie Greuil, a French sports journalist who came to LFC for the occasion. Her insight into the world of sports journalism enthralled our writers—who conducted their own interviews with Sophie before an “interception” from their fifth-grade classmates. Together, they spent the rest of the session uncovering specifics of her profession, including how to cover competitions, analyze their results, and athlete performances. She also shared stories of famous athletes she has met throughout her career—an impressive list, given that our speaker is a professor at the École Supérieure de Journalisme in Lille and has worked for over 20 years at the international news agency Reuters-France, covering 15 Olympic Games and four Paralympic Games. Sophie has also written for youth publications, such as the monthly “Géo Ado” and the website “1jour1actu,” for over 30 years. An inspiring introduction to the week ahead.

Half time.

After some discussion, the fourth-grade reporters decided to cover soccer in all its forms—traditional, American, futsal, Paralympic, and more—with an emphasis on the upcoming FIFA World Cup, which will be held in North America in 2026 and jointly organized by Canada, Mexico, and the United States. With no time to waste, students divided their duties and got to work; some were responsible for conducting interviews, surveys and short audio clips, while others filled the newspaper pages with articles, literary reviews, poems, games, comics and more. They also added their own illustrations throughout the publication. Everyone gave it their all, demonstrating excellent oral and written expression skills, as well as creativity in writing and drawing. An incredible and instructive workshop that gave students a chance to shine.

Overtime.

As the week came to a close, students scored big! The newspaper was designed and printed by their French teachers and instructional technology specialist, bringing together all of the students' hard work, information, and illustrations. On the front page, three exclusive interviews: the first with Gaël Rivère, President of the French Handisport Federation, gold medallist at the 2024 Paris Paralympics in cecifoot, and sponsor of our newspaper; the second with Pascal Bedrossian, former professional soccer player current high school dean at LFC; and the last with Houssame Boinali, player on the Mayotte soccer team and founder of the Ascension Sportive Mahoraise Association. All in all, it was an incredible read, a highly enriching experience, and a tribute to the importance of sports. Congratulations to our young journalists!

Read "Bonjour, Football!"