The University of Sheffield have run another very successful series of visits to local schools, targeting Y9 students who are preparing for the KS4 choices. Once again, our ambassadors engaged them with presentations of their year abroad experiences, motivation for studying languages and future plans.
These events are simple to run and organise, but prove very effective in encouraging take-up of a language option at KS4. A colleague from Birley College, for whom this was the first such event, commented
‘Finally, many thanks to you and the students who came to talk to us today. They were really professional and great with the kids. Definitely worth doing from our point of view.’
And Brinsworth Secondary School, which we have visited for several years now, echo these views: ‘What a success!!! Please pass on our thanks to your fantastic students. All of the dept came up to me individually yesterday to say what a success the morning had been. Our students were really engaged.’
The other high point of the Spring was a visit to Wales High School to present the prizes to the winners of the year 7-9 category in our ‘World In Your Region’ competition. Jessica Hand, Lauren Hand, Jessica Hawley and Emma Langton produced a fabulous poster with poems in 11 different languages, all translated into English alongside the original language. The poems even demonstrate tricky features such as rhyme in both languages! It was such a privilege to meet these talented young linguists and their teacher, Tina Didlock, who had suggested they enter the competition.
