The European Day of Languages, a Council of Europe initiative, aims at celebrating language and cultural diversity. Years 7, 8 and 9 took part in language activities with a view to increase awareness and appreciation of all languages. Students could experiment speaking Italian thanks to the active involvement of Jake and Luca Bonci. Various sayings about language learning were discussed and students experimented with Chinese Characters.

A series of events took place during the day in other subjects too. Departments across the school had prepared resources to help celebrate the day. A special assembly was held for years 10 and 11. Our chefs in the canteen prepared a combination of Spanish, French, German food for the delight of our students. Quizzes and activities in Russian took place in the afternoon.

Students thoughts:

“The activities we did during the day were interesting because they helped us make connections between different languages”.

“The atmosphere had a nice buzz that pulled the school together”.

Joseph Edwards: “it was fun, I loved the dressing up and foreign twists to most lessons. The Italian lesson was delivered really well. I heard languages that I had never heard before like Maori”

“In science we had a really brilliant crossword that had science words in a different language. I enjoyed learning Italian too”.

Ellie Kendal: “our languages day was fun, the dressing up was very good. In history Miss North taught us some Polish which was very interesting as it is a language which you do not hear often.

Our evening entertainment event was held in the hall starting at 7:30 pm and ending at 9:30 pm. Students from years 7 to 13 had been rehearsing songs, poetry reading highlighting their sense of creativity and fun in another language.

The languages department and our students had been working hard in order to offer a quality, enjoyable evening for everybody and money was raised at the end of the evening for Rowcroft hospice. Furzeham primary school children responded to the invitation and performed beautifully jingle bells in French, 2 year 6 pupils accompanied the singers on the violin.

Organising this event was rewarding and I would like to take this opportunity to thank Mr Barrat and my colleagues of the languages department: Miss Lloyd, Miss Matthews, Mrs Spurr, Mr Garner and Mr King who performed beautifully and contributed to making this evening event successful.

The performers, hosts and behind the scene helpers were amazing. A lot of time and effort went into each act but Churston pupils responded really well and were motivated by the thought of raising money for Rowcroft Hospice.

Thank you to the audience, what an ambience, what an atmosphere!

Enjoy learning languages

Mrs I V Bright (Head of Modern Foreign Languages)