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!