Queen Margaret Academy

To celebrate this year’s European Day of Languages Queen Margaret Academy’s (Ayr) pupils got to experience some Spanish food at lunch time. Many thanks to the dinner ladies for putting on a great spread of Paella, Albondigas de carne con pan y arroz con leche.

The S2 Spanish elective class have been busy learning about Spanish and Latin American festivals. As part of the course they created piñatas for this year’s European Day of Languages. The Spanish elective class and the S3 classes had great fun trying to burst the piñatas.

A select lucky 20 S3 pupils and 4 senior pupils attended the South Ayrshire European Day of Languages event hosted by Mark Pentleton of Radio Lingua. The pupils were chosen for their displays of “why languages are important” back in June. Pupils had fun participating in various workshops and the event was rounded off with a quiz to everyone’s great amusement. It was a really interesting afternoon where pupils found out why languages are important regardless of your chosen career. They even tried their hand at a new language using the Radio Lingua website.

Brae High School

As the most northerly high school in the UK, Brae High School pride themselves in participating fully in as many events as they can, and the European Day of Languages is a particular favourite. This year, teachers were restricted to activities within their own class time, but managed to come up with some quite innovative ideas!

The S1 German class divided Germany up into its Bundesländer. Each pupil got a region and had to find interesting facts and figures about their area for a poster – they had to find the flag, the coat of arms and the main city as a prerequisite, plus any other details. Pupils then had to position their posters so that they were roughly in the correct geographical position.  

The S1 French class took part in a European Day of Languages quiz. Many of the questions related to language facts, particularly to the lack of English as a first language throughout the world, thus making the pupils realise the relevance and importance of second and third languages.

The S2 French and German classes were combined, and chose a motivational and inspirational lesson on the importance of learning a modern foreign language. This lesson was conducted with one S2 group in the past, and the uptake of languages in S3 was significantly increased.

One S3 Maths class was doing ratios, and had to increase or decrease recipe quantities to make bigger or smaller batches. In conjunction with the teacher, this was taken a step further by translating the flapjacks recipes into French and German and using the Home Economics room to make them, resulting in a truly cross-curricular lesson!

           
Early in the New Year, the Modern Languages department have agreed a day to work collaboratively with Home Economics on a “breakfast” topic, with a view to learning about breakfast habits in the countries of the languages pupils are studying, as well as elsewhere in the world.

Greenwood Academy

On Thursday 26th September, a group of 10 S3 pupils attended the careers' convention organised by the Ayrshire Chamber of Commerce at Prestwick Airport for the European Day of Languages. They were the only representatives from North Ayrshire schools present at the event and they were great ambassadors for the school.

During the convention, our young people listened to Barry McGugan of IBM and Meryl James and Janette Kelso of SCILT who discussed the importance of languages in today’s job market and as a tool to becoming part of the international community. They then took part in workshops with members of staff from SCILT, IBM, Turnberry Hotel, Ayr Rugby club and students from Glasgow University, who came from all over Europe and beyond.

This event helped to promote languages and sustain pupils' enthusiasm for the subject. When they came back to school, the pupils told their classes and parents about their experiences and cascaded the message about the importance of languages, not only in the world of work but in other aspects of their future life. It was clear from their feedback that they thoroughly enjoyed this experience.

SCILT - A Taste of World Cinema

Here at SCILT, we celebrated the EDL 2013 with film screenings and a movie quiz in the brightly decorated Confucius Classroom in the Lord Hope Building at the University of Strathclyde’s city centre campus.

The films were shown in ‘version originale’ (VO) with English subtitles and several were accessed from www.languagesonscreen.org.uk. The programme included shorts from all over the world, kicking off with a black and white, musical love story of sorts called ‘7:35 de la mañana’ (7:35 in the morning) by Spanish filmmaker Nacho Villalongo set in a neighbourhood cafe. Next came Sandrine Stoïanov’s an animation in French and Russian called ‘Irinka & Sandrinka’ which told the story of one family in the early 20th century displaced by revolution and war. The Oscar nominated short ‘Birthday Boy’ by Korean filmmaker Sejong Park tackled similar themes in a more understated way.

During the interval, members of the audience were invited to match the French, German or Spanish titles of 12 well known Hollywood films to the poster of the original English language version. Some tricky tie break questions had been prepared, but in the event only one person got them all right.

The second half of the film programme began with a short from Italy called ‘Men at Work’ which proved to be a bit of an oxymoron as far as the characters in Fausto Caviglia’s film were concerned.  The whole event was rounded off with a film called ‘der Mungo’ (the Mongoose) by German director Philipp Osthus. This action thriller was so high octane, with such an amazing twist at the end that many of the audience were literally on the edge of their seats!

Linwood High School

At Linwood High the Modern Languages Department put on a range of activities to celebrate EDL 2013 involving both staff and pupils celebrating the linguistic diversity of Europe. Some of the activities included:

• a French "Fact or Fiction" quiz for S1 & S2 – a treasure hunt around the school to find the Fact or Fiction posters then decide which 5 facts were actually fiction.
• a French breakfast café, hosted at breaktime on the 26th, for S1s and S2s – croissants, pain au chocolat, brioche, hot chocolate and orange juice were all on offer.
• S1s and S3s had a quiz all about France.
• S4, S5 & S6 enjoyed working with our Spanish speaking Hungarian Comenius assistant.
• the staff enjoyed a "pot luck" lunch where each staff member contributed a European themed dish for a big buffet lunch to officially welcome Anita, our Hungarian Comenius assistant.
• Staff were also issued with a Greetings sheet with "hello" or "good morning" in a range of different European Languages to allow them to greet their classes in a different language.
• all those who participated received a Linwood High School European Day of Languages sticker.
• Prizes were also awarded to the winners of the Fact or Fiction quiz and to the group with the highest points from S1 for the French quiz.

All in all it was a busy day and the Modern Languages Department would like to thank all those pupils and staff who participated.

                                 Merci!  ¡Gracias!  Vielen Dank!

St. Ambrose High School

St. Ambrose celebrated their European connections in the week leading up to the 26th September. Pupils in S1-2 took a journey of discovery around Europe with the help of their Social Subject and ML teachers. The pupils answered questions on all European countries and the winners, Rhys Gray in 2F2 and Aidan Miller in 2T2 enjoyed a Nando’s experience as a reward. Mia Gurure in 1C1 used the school’s Twitter/Facebook feed to gather her European passport stamps and won iTunes vouchers for her endeavours. A great week was had by all and the staff on a daily basis were greeted in one of many European languages. We didn't need to leave Coatbridge either!!

Perth High School

Perth High celebrated by writing the date in a different language in every class! In French class some pupils taught the other students different languages that they know- including Polish, Turkish and Arabic. Perth High loves learning languages!

Braidhurst High School

Braidhurst pupils celebrated the European Day of Languages by engaging in a variety of activities across many departments. Within the Modern Languages Department, S1 pupils took part in ‘Qui veut gagner de millions?’ in French, the winners being Claire Keatings and William Crosbie from class 1A who managed to reach a million pounds using only one lifeline! In addition, S1 classes made greetings cards and gift tags containing vocabulary in many different European languages. S2 pupils worked in groups and used their skills of research and teamwork to design a poster containing information about a European country of their choice, e.g. food, language, geography, history, and these were displayed in the Modern Languages corridor. S2 will also enjoy a French breakfast next week, as part of their ‘Food and Drink’ topic.

Physical Education teacher, Miss Joanne Lilly, organised a French boules tournament for her S2 class, which took place outside and proved the pupils to be extremely competitive! Chemistry teacher, Dr Peter Gardner, taught a National 4 Chemistry lesson partly in German and a National 5 and Higher lesson in French, much to the delight of his pupils!  Ms Ruth Watson of the Biology Department devised a quiz on the topic of famous European scientists and the pupils with the most correct answers were the recipients of prizes. In the English department, Mrs Maureen Kinnaird involved her S1 class in an activity whereby pupils had to define a list of common French words and phrases in general use in the English language. In Home Economics, Depute Head Teacher Mrs Anne MacDonald in liaison with Mrs Eleanor Magowan, PT Modern Languages, organised French pancake making with her S3 class, using a French recipe, and the pancakes were served to pupils who visited the school Hub.

Elsewhere, other staff tried to promote languages by using greetings from other countries in class and by referring to European themes in their lessons, e.g. Art and Social Subjects and ICT (through European language games online).

The whole school worked well as a team, with the aim of extending the pupils’ knowledge of the language and culture of other countries in Europe, and all pupils thoroughly enjoyed their experiences. It was an excellent example of cross-curricular learning and both staff and pupils are already working on ideas for next year’s celebrations!

Kinnaird Primary School

There was a buzz of excitement in Kinnaird Primary on Thursday 26th September for the European Day of Languages.

Each class in the school learned how to say hello in a different language and pupils greeted each other throughout the day using their new words. The catering team had organised a special international themed lunch and the dining hall was decorated with flags, bunting, pictures and images from different countries. Pupils greeted the catering staff in lots of different languages. Some classes had been learning about European countries, languages and flags for homework tasks and were able to share their work in school on the day.

Many pupils utilised their ICT skills by composing Tweets about learning another language and playing online quizzes about Europe and languages spoken within Europe. The winning Tweet on the day was, “Language learning widens job options and boosts brain power. Kinnaird loves languages!”. All in all a fun and successful day. We are looking forward to next year already!

Taylor High School

To celebrate European Day of Languages in Taylor High School the Modern Languages Department teamed up with the Home Economics Department, produced cakes with edible European flags and had a coffee morning for staff. All funds raised were donated to Macmillan Cancer Care.

They sold a European quiz and presented prizes, and had greetings in different languages printed on the daily bulletin. A truly combined effort!

The pupils were also given a Passport to Europe and leaflets about "taking languages further".

Beath High School

At Beath High all staff members were encouraged to place signs outside their door displaying the languages they speak - results ranged from Scots to Japanese and included languages which teachers wanted to learn as well as ones they'd grown up speaking!

At lunchtime one of the CDT teachers, Mr Giove, gave an Italian lesson and S1 pupils enjoyed a European Food tasting. 

In classes pupils took part in a range of activities from practising tongue twisters to completing the "Passport to the European Union" and some of our PSE classes even took part in discussions about the importance of learning languages. The Modern Languages Department are delighted at the success of this year's European Day of Languages!

Tobermory High School

S1/2 pupils along with senior pupils and members of staff celebrated the European Day of Languages on 26 September. As is traditional in Tobermory High they enjoyed a language breakfast for S1/2.

Pupils had passports and had the opportunity to learn a few words in a variety of languages, or have a conversation in Gaelic and French, and of course eat their way through a mountain of pains au chocolat and fruit.

Tobermory High School have always been lucky to have a variety of languages at this event and this year was no exception. The table top sessions were lead by pupils (including native speakers of Italian and Polish), senior students and staff (old and new!) and the languages taught were Gaelic, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Polish, Japanese, Russian, Greek, Portuguese, Maori and Ga (one of the languages spoken in Ghana). On behalf of S1/2, Merci, Danke, Gracias and Moran Taing etc to all the linguists!