Success Stories

It has been a busy year for the Languages department with lots of enrichment activities and trips taking place. At the end of September, we organised whole school activities around the European Day of Languages, including a competition for pupils to find and translate teachers’ favourite words in another language.

The Autumn term came to a festive close with our annual much-loved trip to the Christmas market in Lille. This proved to be another very successful couple of days spent discovering this beautiful French town where pupils had time for shopping and sampling the delicious continental food in the market. Some fifty pupils travelled by coach  and had fun looking round the market, buying presents as well as riding on the Ferris wheel and visiting a chocolate factory.

In the Spring term, we marked the end of the Winter by holding a pancake making competition, to celebrate ‘La Chandeleur’, the French festival that marks the end of the Winter and welcomes the star of Spring. We had lots of delicious and creative entries but our winner stole the show with a green Shrek pancake.

Some of our KS4 and 5 students also took part in a Francophone/Hispanic culinary adventure in the Spring term with the French students cooking up a storm with a popular Senegalese chef. Their jollof rice was a particular highlight. The Spanish students were not to be out done however and took part in a Peruvian cooking workshop, led by our very own Mr Diaz.

All of our KS4 languages students also enjoyed visits from the ever-popular Onatti theatre group who perform their plays in French and Spanish. Some of the braver pupils even joined them on stage!

Finally, our Year 12 Languages students have had a very exciting year with a trip to Google HQ to understand the importance of speaking another language in the business world. They have also recently returned from residential trips abroad with the French cohort enjoying the gastronomy of Lyon and the Spanish cohort experiencing the sights and sounds of Madrid.

We look forward to helping pupils enrich their learning experience, develop their independence and celebrate cultural differences in 2025-26.