Pupils and staff had a fantastic experience this week with the visit of a Maori cultural group who sang a variety of traditional songs and performed a number of dances including the legendary Haka! The pupils were able to take part and ask questions.
Year 7 French pupils have this term been exchanging letters and Christmas cards on-line with some pupils from the Collège Pasteur. Here is Scarlett's card:
The winner of the Spanish Christmas card competition goes to Bradley. TRICS are on their way Brad. Bradley went for a traditional nativity scene or Belén. Enhorabuena.
Félicitations/Congratulations to Bonnie for a superb performance in the recent online vocabulary competition. Bonnie came 15th in the whole country scoring a stunning 37,890 points.
There were some really excellent contributions too from Lily (Spanish), and Leah and Jade (French). Well done.
www.vocabexpress.com is a subscription site which enables our pupils to develop and test their vocabulary in French and Spanish. It really helps pupils to do well in their GCSE and A level exams. Each pupil has their own user id and password.
Welcome to Nicolas Morel and Sandra Mas Guerrero, who have just joined us from Spain and France respectively until May next year, as our Spanish and French assistants. Nicolas is from Brittany and Sandra from Barcelona.
Lucy's Chinese club is every Wednesday in MFL5. Come along to learn a little Mandarin and to experience a little of Chinese culture.
Lucy is pictured making Chinese black tea - tea from her province in China.
Congratulations to our four intrepid Latin scholars, Ella, Connor, Georgia and Milly, who successfully completed the Stage 1 of the Cambridge Latin Course.
Latin club this year is on Thursdays in MFL6.
Welcome to Liu Fang, 'Lucy', who is our new Mandarin speaking Chinese Assistant from Yunnan Province. Lucy will be working with Year 7 and 8 delivering lessons in Mandarin and Chinese Culture. She is also offering a Chinese after school club and enrichment sessions for students in years 12 and 13. While here Lucy will be going into a number of our local primary schools too.
Lucy is pictured at Godrevy where she saw seals and the Ocean for the first time!
Get ready for the start of term and the forthcoming European Day of Languages. There will be lots of activities across the College to help celebrate the day including a brand new QR quiz which if you have a smart phone or tablet you will be able to enter. Keep your eyes peeled in the MFL block.
I came across this poem the other day and it really struck a chord. I hope you like it.
Learning a language
is like doing a jigsaw puzzle
of a million pieces
with a picture that keeps changing.
It's like getting lost in a foreign city without a map.
It's like playing tennis without a ball,
like being an ant in a field of grasshoppers.
It's like being an acrobat with a broken leg,
an actor without a script,
a carpenter without a saw,
a storyteller without a middle or an end.
But then gradually
it's like being out in the early morning
with the mists lifting.
It's like a chink of light under a door,
like finding the glove you were lookingfor,
catching the train you thought you were going to miss,
getting an unlooked-for present,
exchanging a smile.
And then one day it's like riding a bicycle
very fast downhill.