Colfe’s celebrates European Languages Day
Colfe’s marked the European Day of Languages with a packed day of cross-curricular lessons and activities aimed at celebrating the benefits of language learning.
Our younger pupils in Junior School took part in a ‘show and tell’ session bringing in an object or story book from another country and singing a song in another language.
Departments across the Senior School organised an impressive range of activities to broaden pupils’ language skills, including:
- Modern Foreign Languages: Year 7 pupils took part in an art competition on the topic “Languages open doors” and pupils in Years 8 -10 taught their own home language to each other or researched a language and taught 10 words. MFL also ran a House Treasure Hunt competition where all the clues were in different languages.
- English: reading from Beowulf, the old English epic poem, focusing on the Germanic roots of Old English compared to German.
- Maths: exploring how the Greek alphabet is linked to modern-day maths.
- DT: making ‘Welcome’ signs in all the languages Year 7 pupils speak at home.
- History: studying the language of the French resistance in original French.
- Art: organising a whole-day project where pupils painted an imitation of Picasso’s Guernica on the foyer wall of the creative arts centre.
- Music: competing in a singing competition with songs in French, German, Spanish, Italian and Arabic.
- Library and Careers: the Library was covered with signs in different languages and the Careers Department provided an information pack for Year 10 and 11 parents on the benefits of studying languages at A-level.
To round off a perfect day of activities, everyone had the chance to sample a lunchtime European menu and participate in a languages-based virtual escape room during form time.
Mr Koutsakis, Head of Modern Languages said: “Learning a language has so many benefits, it builds communication skills, connects you to other cultures, is rewarding and fun. A big thank you to everyone who was involved in putting together a great programme for our pupils.”
The European Day of Languages is a Council of Europe initiative and has been running annually since 2001.