European Day of Languages 26th September 2009

This week our year 9 French students are celebrating the European Day of Languages by entering a French poetry competition! See some of the results below:

Poetry Competition 2009-10

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You can read more about the European Day of Languages at the Council of Europe's website.

Les Languages et La Technologie - UPDATE

At the end of last term we had a successful videoconference with Mascalls Secondary School. The pupils presented their schools in French and played buzz word bingo on the topic of Careers and Work Experience. This was a timely topic as both sides of students were about to embark, or had just embarked upon their work experience placements. Students also learned about Videoconference etiquette and presentation skills.

A successful videoconference needs careful preparation and organisation, and the students demonstrated professionalism and teamwork throughout. We look forward to holding more in the future.

Mr Oakley checking the webcam...









...and Miss Sheehan helping to test the equipment prior to the videoconference.

Intercultural Understanding

Check out this video link: Eels

As we welcome our new year 7's we are embarking on a transition project which includes looking at Intercultural Understanding. This is reflected in the KS2 Framework for Languages and we hope to build upon students learning in this area as they start their KS3 language studies.

Year 10 German Exchange, May 2009

Our Year 10 students went to stay with their German partners from the Beethoven Gymnasium, our German partner school in Bonn, in May this year. Luckily we had great weather most of the time so our excursions were really good. We went on a double-decker train from Bonn to Düsseldorf where we saw the really expensive shops as well as visiting the 21st century art museum.

Some students went with their families to Fantasialand which is one of the biggest theme parks in Germany and others went to Aqualand which is a huge water park.

Another day out was a trip down the river Rhine by coach to a picturesque village called Bacharach where we embarked on a cruise boat and sailed up river to the Marksburg castle. The picture shows a view from the castle battlements down on to the river. It is one of the few castles in Germany which has furniture and interior decoration. We saw the medieval kitchen, the bedroom complete with a very short bed with curtains (they believed you should not sleep lying down in case you did not wake up again) and a baby’s crib, cannons with their muzzles pointing down to the river, a herb garden and the torture chamber.

We went to the school one morning which was very different from Weald of Kent, not least because it started at 8am and finished at 1.15. On our last day we took the train again, this time to Cologne. Lots of us climbed to the top of the cathedral tower which was over 400 steps and from where, once we had got our breath back, we had a fantastic view over the city. We then had time to look around the shopping streets and spend the rest of our money.

The students had a great time with their partners and families and learned such a lot of German during their stay.