Council bids ‘au revoir’ to French students

Three Rivers District Council has said ‘au revoir’ to four French students after they completed a four-week work placement as part of the twinning of Chorleywood and Dardilly.

The French students, aged between 16 and 17, who are all studying landscaping and grounds maintenance at their college in France, joined up with the Council’s Grounds Maintenance team for a four-week period, departing home on Saturday.

Malcolm Clarke, Services Manager at Three Rivers, has been overseeing their stay. Malcolm said: “All the students have shown an excellent commitment to working and an appetite for learning.  They have undertaken a number of tasks for the council such as sports pitch-marking, cemetery maintenance, grass-cutting, turf and shrub bed maintenance.”

Steven Halls, the Council’s Chief Executive, presided over a short farewell ceremony when he thanked them for their hard work and presented them with letters in French and English recommending them to future employers, certificates of achievement, a trophy each and some souvenir photographs. 

He stated: “I hope each young colleague has learnt a lot, has enjoyed working with the Three Rivers teams and will return to France with happy memories of England, and especially the Three Rivers district”.

Chorleywood is twinned with the city of Dardilly near Lyon, France. The four students return to France on 14 July 2012.