European Day of Languages at St Andrew's

We, at St. Andrew’s celebrated the European Day of Languages on Wednesday, 28^th September.


All classes were involved in this event from writing the date in a language other than Spanish, being greeted in a different language to a cross-curricular lesson that was related to Europe. One of the lessons was a game, based on "Who Wants to be a Millionaire". It reinforced some important facts related to Europe.
Every S1 pupil had a homework task to write a story about the linguabat. Those less able to write at length drew a bat poster and add words and some sentences in a variety of languages.
Staff throughout the school participated in their own departments in a variety of ways and in several languages.


The main event was a huge buffet, made by the Higher Spanish class, containing foods from lots of European countries. A big display that included posters, flags, pictures, regalia etc and some S5/6 pupils dressed in national costume (or at least parts of some outfits) and they all looked great!


We played music from selected countries and some pupils sang along.
A quiz PowerPoint that one of the pupils had made up was displayed on the TV screens while staff and pupils tasted some of the food on offer in the crush hall.


We had a really good time.

ST MARGARET ACADEMY

We have had a great week this week. Each day we have celebrated a different European language.

We started each day by the prayer which was said in the language covered that day. (French, Spanish, Italian, German and Dutch).

Everyday, pupils have been doing various activities such as watching a French movie (les Choristes), going for a Tapas Trip, discussing an Italian breakfast, learning new facts about Germany and learning fun facts about Holland.

Moreover, pupils had the choice in the canteen with some dishes from the country where the language is spoken.

French dishes:

Vichyssoise (leek and potato soup)

Poulet Grand-mère Casserole (chicken and mushroom casserole)

Spanish dishes:
Ternera con tomate (beef and tomato soup)

Tarta de Manzana (apple tart on puff pastry coated in apricot jam)

Italian dishes

Minestrone soup (Tomato and pasta soup)

Mince Beef Lasagne

German dishes
Sauerbraton (brown marinated Beef)

Kasekuchen (Cheese cake)

It has been a huge success- and we as a department have been dressing up everyday wearing clothes typical of their country.

Hope that other schools across the country have had as much fun as us.




 

Mairi Godley

Modern Languages Teacher

TARBERT ACADEMY

On Monday, 26^th September P3/4 pupils in Tarbert Academy turned teacher for the day and offered their parents, grannies, grandads aunties, uncles and friends FREE language lessons in French, German or Spanish. 

The pupils worked very hard for two weeks prior to the event learning the core language,  practising their accents, creating resources such as playing cards and even made worksheets that they used to check the learning had happened.  They wrote lesson plans and made their own stickers with which to reward their pupils when they did a good job. 

The session started with an action song which the whole class taught to all “pupils” and then moved on to individual lessons.  “Classes” were between 1 – 4 pupils. 

“Pupils” were invited to stay for lunch and enjoyed Soupe à l’oignon, Paella and Schwarzwalder Kirschtorte.  P7/6 helped with the ambience in the dining centre with beautifully designed and executed menus adorning the tables.


Liz Scott
Class Teacher P3/P4

EDL in Inverclyde

I am Nuria and I am working as a Spanish LA in the area of Inverclyde. To celebrate the European Day of Languages I prepared a master class in Catalan, as I come from Barcelona. Some pupils knew we speak two languages but not all of them, so it was a useful way of getting them to know the context deeper (many spend their holidays there).

Firstly, I briefly told them about the bilingual situation but I quickly moved into the lesson itself, making them repeat “Hola”, “Bon dia” all together. Then I used the introduction phrase “Em dic Nuria” (I´m...) and asked them to present themselves, including their teacher! The next step was to shake hands with a pupil and add “Com et dius? Encantat/da” (What´s your name? Pleased to meet you) in what they already learnt. I put a slide on the screen with the small dialogue because the next step was to stand up and start shaking hands with everyone in the class and introducing themselves.

I also told them which languages I speak in Catalan and so I asked them to do the same. The last activity was related to food and drink. I told them to imagine themselves in a bar or restaurant, presenting the waiter and the custumer with the labels in Catalan along with a picture, so it was not necessary to translate it into English. Then, I gave to every group a set of food pictures and the labels to match. When they made their guess I put a slide with the right match and asked them to repeat with me all the vocabulary. I did the same process with drink. I did it in St. Columba´s High School (located in Greenock) where the second language is French so I tried to use vocabulary with similar form (“fromage-formatge”, “vi”, “pa”), basically to make them aware of how they can use their knowledge to guess meanings in other languages (especially with Romance languages!).

But there was still something left to do! I gave them a sheet with all the vocabulary they have learnt so far along with a small dialogue between the costumer and the waiter. Firstly I read it aloud and asked them to repeat with me for pronunciation purposes and then they had to practice it with their group. They also decided which food and drink to order and the bill. Finally, every group went in front of the class and performed the situation. They all had fun and the teacher also performed it with me!

They were S3 and S4 groups and I might do it again tomorrow with the other school I work in. I think the pupils and the teachers found it quite interesting and I believed it was also a way to settle in a type of activities that would definitely be useful for the Spanish class (as the teacher told me, the role play and the introduction performed yesterday has helped them to be more confident and feel relaxed about using the second language and in the future it will not be uncomfortable or something to feel shy for).

Cheers from Gourock!

Galashiels Academy

On Friday, 30th September, we will be celebrating European Day of Languages in the school. We will have bunting flags (E.U. flags) in the corridor and in the canteen, where there will be a European themed lunch on offer. There is also a coffee morning for staff provided by the Hospitality class (senior pupils being in charge). If the weather is good enough, we might try to take pupils outside for a game of boules. In the afternoon, we are planning to show short films (to fit into a period), with a choice between French, German, Spanish or Italian.

The S1 and S2 pupils are also taking part in the Promoting Languages competition - we set the task last week as a homework exercise.

Cedric Raffier

PT Modern Languages