The European Day of Languages – celebrating diversity in our school!

8th October 18

On Wednesday 26th September, we celebrated the European Day of Languages by coming to school dressed in colours that represented European flags. Mrs Williams-Ryan, dressed in black and white and certainly had everyone guessing her choice of flag and revealed that she was dressed in the colours of Brittany. The day started with a special assembly during which the pupils heard about their teachers’ experiences of going  to school in Europe. Olive, our Head Girl interviewed Miss Magdic from Slovenia; Miss Diez from Spain; and Mrs Williams-Ryan who grew up in Geneva. The pupils were surprised to hear that Miss Magdic learnt Slovenian, German and English at school; that Miss Diez didn’t finish school until 5:00pm; and that Mrs Williams-Ryan did not go to school on a Thursday but instead went on a Saturday morning. Mrs Williams-Ryan then taught the whole school, including the staff, the Spanish alphabet through a song with a very catchy tune. Throughout the day, pupils were encouraged to greet each other and staff in their home languages and this displayed how multi-cultural the school is. We heard Russian, Spanish and French among other languages. To enhance their knowledge of Europe, the pupils took part in a number of quizzes and throughout the week had the opportunity to enter a special online competition using Duolingo for schools.

Headmistress Mrs Williams-Ryan commented: “The European Day of Languages was a great success. We all learnt so much about other cultures by engaging in an array of language focused activities and enjoyed exploring and celebrating the diversity of our school.”