We can’t believe it is nearly over – it doesn’t seem like 7 months since we were welcoming Lucia and Nathalie to our school and now it’s time for them to go. Nathalie and Lucia have been a fantastic asset to the department and have participated fully in school life, even taking part in school trips and joining English lessons.

Nathalie, who celebrated her birthday last week, will be going back to Belgium, and Lucia, who has been living with Mrs Stonehouse from our Finance Office, will be returning to Austria. We will miss both of them greatly, but having them here has highlighted the importance of having access to native speakers. The pupils have really enjoyed working with them and the assistants have enjoyed working with the pupils.

 Both girls also ran evening classes in their respective languages that have proved to be very popular.

We have applied for French and German assistants for next year and will, as always be looking for homes for them, so if anyone is interested in providing a home for a language assistant then please get in touch with Mrs Borders at the International Centre on 01827 702205 ext 284.

Work Experience

Work experience this year saw Lizzie Poole in 13GAJ spending a week working as a teaching assistant in a primary school in Nivelles, Belgium whilst Kyle Burrows (12HCK) and Kimberley Jones (12DOH), accompanied by Mrs Lund visited our partner school in Holdorf, Germany. Kyle and Kim stayed with host familes whilst Mrs Lund stopped in a local hotel. All three participated fully in school life and even Mrs Lund ended up doing a spot of teaching whilst she was over there. All came back reporting having had a fantastic time whilst they were there and having enjoyed themselves immensely as well as having the opportunity of using their German.

Evening Classes

Evening classes in French and German will stop at half term. They will recommence in the second half of the autumn term once our new assistants arrive. Russian lessons will continue until the end of June when Linda will be leaving us to return to her home in Estonia. Spanish lessons will continue by arrangement with your teacher Mrs Harrison. 2008/09 Evening classes will start in the autumn term. Depending on the language assistants we are offered we are hoping to be able to offer French, German, Spanish for beginners, Spanish for intermediate, Chinese, Polish and English as a foreign language for those people who’s native tongue is not English and would like a bit of extra help with the language.

If anyone is interested in taking up a language then please contact Mrs Borders in the International Centre.

Immersion Course to China

The Language Department has once again applied for places on the two week immersion course to China. Following the success of the course in Beijing last summer we have applied to go to Shanghai this time round. Formerly a small fishing village, Shanghai has turned into a large, bustling port. At the moment we are looking at taking 12 pupils but we have been informed that there will be more spaces for Shanghai. The price of the two week course is £950 which includes flights, insurance and visa. Food and accommodation is supplied by the British Council so there is no further expenditure apart from any spending money. We haven’t heard yet whether or not our application is successful, but we have been told that a decision should be made in the next few days. If you are still interested in taking part in this fantastic opportunity then please go to the Finance Office with £150 non-refundable deposit and you will be added to the list. Should our application not be successful then of course this money will be returned to you.

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