Glasgow Academy Prep School

The Ambassadors project at Glasgow Academy Prep School was a fresh way of getting the older pupils to think about language learning, investigate and teach their younger peers in a real and exciting way.

Ambassadors volunteered to promote and represent languages and culture from a wide range of different countries including Spain, Germany, France, Italy, China, Greece and Russia,  They were very committed and after some lunchtime training sessions, the Ambassadors went out on playground duty, teaching, listening, communicating and having fun.  There was such a buzz as the Ambassadors moved around, shouting, laughing and cajoling their fellow pupils.  The other children, the learners, thought it was hilarious.  It was like a big game for the P1s and P2s while the P4s thought it was very exciting.

As well as completing in depth evaluations of the experience, afterwards there was a reception and photoshoot for the Ambassadors.

It was a novel way of bringing languages into the spotlight and Ambassadorship is an ideal forum for promoting the four CfE capacities.  Judges of SCILT's EDL2012 competition agreed, awarding the Ambassadors 1st prize in the primary category.

Madras College

The focus of the 'Languages need you' celebration at Madras College was to make pupils and thier parents more aware of the importance of learning languages at any level.  During the week leading up to EDL there were many language-based activities in class. A continental lunch was given for junior pupils and an information evening with outside speakers from the Goethe Institute, SCILT and St Andrews University was held for parents.

The impact was considerable on the school community.  Teachers from all departments discussed the events and pupils said they were amazed by how many different languages teachers can speak.  Pupils realised that they can learn a language and be a scientist or a mathematician as was demonstrated by their teachers.

The profile of Modern Languages were greatly raised in the school.  Pupils had fun whilst they were learning and pupils were involved in several interdisciplinry tasks thereby making connections across the curriculum.

This extensive and exciting EDL celebration was awarded joint 1st prize in the EDL2012 competition.

Jordanhill School

The European Day of Languages celebration for S3 pupils at Jordanhill School was divided into 2 parts.  In the morning there was a carousel of 10 workshops focusing on cultural diversity and the range of different languages present at the school.  As pupils visited each station, they had a page of a booklet to fill in as a record of their learning.

Workshops were run by pupils, the FLA and teachers from different departments and introduced Gaelic, Italian, Romanian, Spanish, Bengali and Czech language and culture as well as including information about the European Union, languages and jobs.

A quiz was held and prizes were awarded to the team who successfully guessed the mystery teachers who were not only in disguise but ho were speaking in a language other than English.

In the afternoon, 3 speakers came to share their language experiences.  One was a Geography and Psychology student at Glasgow University who is fluent in French, English, Dutch and German.  Another was a spokesperson from Glasgow2014 Commonwealth Games explaining how she uses her skills in English, French and Afrikaans in her work.  Finally, Glasgow Warrior player Robert Harley talked about how French is benefiical to his rugby career.  Pupils were impressed and felt motivated by the speakers who all insisted on the fact that languages can always help you to open new doors in the future and are always a good tool to have next to another speciality such as law or sports.

The creativity and interdisciplinary nature of this EDL celebration saw Jordanhill School awarded 1st place in the S1-S3 category of the EDL2012 competition.

Bearsden Academy

EDL was celebrated with a Treasure Hunt with S6 pupils assisting S1 pupils.  The questions related to geography, history, art and food amongst many other things.  Afterwards, pupils wrote an article about the activity for the school's Parent's Newsletter to update them about the event.

St Margaret's Academy

St Margaret's Academy's EDL celebrations lasted a whole week and included languages prayers, tasty international options in the canteen and flag decorations. 

In addition, the ICT and MFL Departments collaborated to organise a tourism task.  Pupils worked in groups to produce a talking tourist kiosk giving information about well known Scottish attractions in a variety of languages.

St Ambrose High

S2 have appointed ML Ambassadors who promote language learning amongst their peers.  The  idea of a 'Zumbathon' was to get as wide an audience involved as possible, the ambassadors wanted it to be language based but with some real 'out their seats' learning.

The pupils raised the profile of Mary's Meals and scarificed their lunch hour for the good of children in Albania, the Ukraine and Bosnia-Herzegovina.  A presentation in Spanish was created with the help of some Higher students.  Through contributing their views, time and talents, the S2 pupils played a part in bringing about positive change in their school by making the other pupils think as they tucked into their lunch, that somewhere in Europe a child would be attending school not only to achieve an education but a meal that they were 'zumba-ing' to provide.  In the end, sufficient funds were raised to provide food for 9 school children.

Battlefield Primary School

Battlefield Primary's Young Interpreters have various responsibilities around the school including promoting languages.  They decided to celebrate the European Day of Languages with a game show.

Each class was allocated a European country and a Young Interpreter to teach the pupils some simple phrases in the appropriate language.  Each child had a fact file about their country and after a few days of swotting up, classes held a mini quiz about their adopted country.  At this stage, one child from each class was put forward for one of the game show teams.

On the day itself, the inaugural 'European Challenge' game show was opened by P1s serenading the audience in Spanish, it was hosted by an MC from P6 with the rest of the school enthusiastically cheering on the competing teams.

The whole school seemed to enjoy the game show experience and everyone got involved one way or another.  Better still, Battlefield won 2nd prize inthe Primary category of SCILT's 2012 EDL competition!

All Saint's Secondary

Prior to the EDL, the MFL and English Departments worked on this short film, which was shown across the school during a two-day programme of events.  Staff and pupils volunteered to be recorded speaking in their home or a foriegn language.  Media Studies pupils then compiled the video, editing and adding music, subtitles and backgrounds.

MFL staff approached other departments in the school to devise a full-day EDL programme for S1 pupils, held over two days.  Pupils visited Social Subjects for activities about francophone and Spanish-speaking countries, in Business Studies they did a languages and business quiz, zumba in PE, a taster of Italian in MFL and a taste of Greek, French, Spanish and Italian food in Home Economics.

Meanwhile, an international staff breakfast was offered before school and S2-S6 classes participated in German, Spanish, Italian and Gaelic taster lessons.

During the 2 days, pupils were responsible for taking 'passports' with them to each subject to record their experiences.

It generated a real buzz about languages.  It raised the profile of the department, everyone in school was talking about it!

Even better, All Saints Secondary were awarded joint 1st prize in the SCILT EDL2012 competition.

Lossiemouth High

The EDL celebrations lasted a whole week at Lossiemouth High School.  The

timetable was incredibly varied, with quizzes in the library, themed menus in

the canteen, a competition to see who could identify the most flags and several film

screenings.

Taylor High

At Taylor High School, £120 was raised for the Beatson Institute for Cancer Research by selling a quiz. There was also a staff coffee morning and the chance to design a sombrero in the library. The poster competition among Taylor High’s feeder primaries was a great success too, with St Theresa’s the overall winners.

St Andrew's RC Secondary

Linguistic diversity is an important resource to be recognised, valued, used and cherished. Language learning brings benefits to all ages – no one is too old to learn a new language and enjoy the opportunities it opens up. Learning other peoples' languages is another way of helping us to understand each other better and overcome our cultural differences.

Keeping this in mind, various Spanish classes were involved in making the celebration a success.

Every S1 pupil had a homework task to write a story about a “Linguabat”, a bat that travels across Europe learning languages. Staff throughout the school participated in their own departments in a variety of ways and in several languages. The main event was a buffet, made by the Spanish Higher 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 Spanish music and some pupils could be heard singing along!  Our young people had a really good time tasting some of the different foods that were on offer.

Sgoil Lionacleit

The celebration of European Day of Languages (EDL) on 26 September has now become an annual event in Sgoil Lionacleit. The day aims to celebrate the rich and diverse culture behind each and every language spoken in the world and to  show people across Europe how important languages are, and what fun can be had learning them.

On the day, students at Sgoil Lionacleit were once again involved in a range of activities both within and outside their languages lessons. S1 were asked to find 10 adults who could exchange a greeting with them in a language other than their first language; those who did received a merit. This year in our classrooms and corridors you could here Welsh, Swahili, Arabic, Inuit and Mi’kmaq, to name but a few!

We also developed our activities this year to include our some of our primary feeder schools. Mrs Carter and the S5 German class visited Balivanich, Lochmaddy and Paible Schools and delivered a workshop about EDL which included sharing phrases in German, French and Gaelic. The S5’s were extremely impressed by the enthusiasm for languages and exemplary behaviour of the primary pupils. Mrs Carter was extremely impressed by the maturity and enthusiasm of the S5 pupils!

Kilmarnock Academy

Kilmarnock Academy celebrated European Day of Languages on September 27 in style with a range of activities for pupils from S1 to S6.  The Assembly Hall was decorated with flags and banners made by S1 pupils and French delicacies were on sale in the foyer during break – the “pains au chocolat” proved very popular indeed and quickly sold out!  

There was a Fancy (European) Dress Competition with prizes for S1 with judging in the hall at lunchtime.  Quite a few S1 pupils made a great effort to dress up and special mention must go to Lewis Givens who looked very French, Jade Agnew who was a Spanish lady and Jessica Thomson who made a fabulous Norwegian costume! 

P6 and P7 pupils from Kirkstyle and Loanhead came to the Academy to join the S1 pupils in their activities for the day.  They played party games in French and sang a French song.  They finished off by trying out some “Tektonic” dance moves.  This is a very popular street dance in France.

S2 pupils were all given a copy of  a “Passport to the European Union” which is sourced free of charge from the European Publications Office.  This little booklet has lots of activities relating to Europe from major tourist landmarks to the symbols which appear on that country’s Euro coins.  Pupils had to answer various questions about the European Union and again prizes were awarded for the best entries.  S3 and S4 pupils took part in a Euroquiz to challenge their general knowledge on languages and Europe.  The winning team from each year group also won prizes.  

Once again, pupils enjoyed all the activities on offer and they also learned a little bit about the importance of learning a modern language in today’s world. 

Airdrie Academy

Airdrie Academy pupils did a live Skype session with a school in Lille.  They introduced themselves in both French and English.  Then the French pupils sang happy birthday in French to one of Airdrie's S1 girls.  In response, one of the S1 girls played Skye Boat Song on the cornet.  A wonderful experience!

Abronhill High

All S1 & S2 pupils were invited to join in our 5th year of celebrations for European Day of Languages in the Modern Languages Department of Abronhill High School. Pupils had the opportunity to take part in the ‘Euro Quiz’ and food tasting at lunchtime. This included foods from France, Spain, Germany, Italy, Greece, Poland amongst others. Pupils also received ‘goody bags’ and our quiz winners also received prizes.