South East

280 pupils from eleven schools in the South took part in two days of football and French at University of Southampton on the 23rd and 24th March as part of our successful “Score in French” project. The activity was piloted last year with six schools but as research showed it was so effective in increasing motivation in Year 8 pupils, it was decided to extend the project.

“Score in French” provides teachers with an extensive resource pack to teach French in relation to football. After using the materials in class, schools are invited to send teams to compete in a cross-curricular tournament, in which football playing, cheerleading in French and creating art work linking French and football are integral parts. ‘Teachers have reported that the need to work hard in French to be part of the school team for the tournament has motivated many pupils’, commented Clare Forder, Routes into Languages Project Manager.

And indeed pupils who come to the tournaments enjoy an exciting, action-packed day with Modern Language students, who referee matches in French and involve the pupils in a range of pitch-side language activities. Project designer, Dr Ian McCall, remarked that ‘the football theme and the tournaments give our students a fantastic opportunity to share their joy for language learning with school pupils and this will result in more pupils continuing studying languages and an increased number of excellent applicants for MFL teacher training courses.’

This year schools came from across the region to compete and whilst the Tuesday trophy was taken by Hamble Community Sports College, a ‘home’ team, the Willink School were certainly pleased to have made the trip to Southampton when they headed back to Reading with the Wednesday trophy. Prizes for the winning teams were provided by Saints in the Community who have supported the project from the outset.

The “Score in French” resources are available free of charge to all schools and a slimmed down version has been created in Spanish in time for the World Cup.
 

Please click here to view event photos from March 23rd and here for those from March 24th.  A podcast from this event is also available here.

Students learning German at Patcham High School, Brighton recently put their language skills to the test when they visited Couven Gymnasium in Aachen, Germany for a week-long languages and media exchange supported by Routes into Languages South. The aim of the trip was to improve the Patcham students' German communication skills as well as to experience life in a German school and explore the different aspects of German culture.

The students from each school engaged in a variety of activities such as team games, designing team t-shirts and creating posters to display information about home towns. These activities were filmed by media assistants from Patcham High School as well as media and languages undergraduates from the University of Brighton. Students were also given cameras to record the activities themselves.

During their time in Aachen, the school groups visited the local Christmas markets, sampled traditional German food, spent time in the nearby city of Cologne and took a trip to the Dreiländereck where the borders of Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands meet.

Speaking about the trip, the English pupils reported that they were pleased to be given an opportunity to use their German skills in real-life situations and the German pupils explained they were keen to find out about school life in another country. Everyone involved spoke positively about the benefits of such an exchange and the students at Couven Gymnasium are very much looking forward to their return trip to Brighton in June!

Dr Ian McCall from the University of Southampton recently travelled to Trieste, Italy to present Score in French!, one of the projects run by Routes into Languages South.  Speaking at the first Languages Meet Sport conference, Dr McCall presented the project as as a successful example of combining languages and sport (specifically French and football).  A short clip (in Italian) can be viewed here. 

Canterbury students starring in the recently produced Life, Translated film as part of Routes South's Languages on Film project were interviewed by local radio presenter, Johnny Lewis, on his KMFM radio show.  To hear the interview, click here.

A Level Spanish students were invited to the University of Brighton to take part in an event celebrating the Mexican festival of el dia de los muertos (Day of the Dead) on Monday 2nd November.

The festivities began with everyone trying hot chocolate drinks flavoured with chilli powder, a traditional Mexican beverage for this time of year.  The visiting students used this time to speak with the Aimhigher/Routes into Languages undergraduate ambassadors about studying for languages degrees and life at university in general.

One of the university's Spanish lecturers, who is from Mexico City, gave a first-hand account of what happens during the festival.  She gave a very interesting presentation in Spanish and showed video footage of celebrations in Oaxaca.  This was followed by some Spanish language activities, which helped everyone to learn specific vocabulary related to el dia de los muertos.

Students were then invited to decorate sugar skulls, which is one of the main traditions associated with this festival.  Ingredients such as icing, chocolate and various sweets were used to create some fantastic decorations and prizes were awarded for the three best skulls.

The evening was rounded off by enjoying some typical Mexican foods, including chilli chocolate as well as cucumber with chilli and lime - which was delicious!

The students reported that they had had a lot of fun and had learnt a lot of interesting facts.  Accompanying teachers also enjoyed the event and were pleased with the cultural information provided.

Photographs of the event can be found here.

Routes into Languages South and the University of Brighton would like to thank Aimhigher Sussex for their support with this event.

On Monday 2nd November the University of Portsmouth hosted a Day of the Dead themed event to promote the continuation of study within the Spanish language, through activities and festivities associated with the traditional Mexican celebration el dia de los muertos, which falls on this date.

A total of five local schools, Miltoncross, Mayfield, Cowplain Community, City of Portsmouth Boys and City of Portsmouth Girls, attended during the afternoon to receive a presentation and vocabulary session led by our current Undergraduate students who are taking Spanish or degrees such as applied languages. The 40 year 9 students embraced the opportunity to practice their pronunciation and learn about the Mexican culture.

All students then also took part in decorating a sugar skull and making a Day of the Dead style mask, such as a skeleton or devil design. We then ended the session with a fiesta style party where pupils appreciated the chance to taste some Mexican food, enjoy some authentic Spanish music and parade their competitive nature in attempts to destroy our piñatas and win treats. Prizes were also awarded for winning games and creating the best sugar skull or mask. All those who took part appeared to enjoy all parts of the afternoon. We had a range of abilities within the group as different schools had been studying from varying ages or year groups within their school, however all participants worked together well and managed to grasp the vocabulary by the end of the afternoon. Overall the event was a great success, we hope to run more of these events in the future to continue raising awareness of the importance of studying a language.

Approximately 60 students from Canterbury High School and Barton Court Grammar School worked together to write, produce and star in a multilingual film about teen life. With support from Canterbury Christ Church University as well as input from media and acting professionals, the students' hard work was reflected in their polished performances on screen.

Students, parents and staff all gathered to watch the film, entitled Life, Translated, for the first time last week. The evening began with a drinks reception, followed by the screening. Dr John Moss, Dean of Education at Canterbury Christ Church University opened the screening with a speech about the importance of languages, which was also echoed by the head master and deputy head master of both schools. Local radio presenter, Johnny Lewis, from KMFM was invited to award prizes for Best Actor and Actress and Best Supporting Actor and Actress.

The evening was a great success, with the imagination and collaboration shown by students and staff inspiring others to follow in their footsteps.

Johnny Lewis will also be interviewing some of the students who took part on his morning radio show on ">KMFM Thanet.
 

About 180 pupils from schools in Southampton and Hampshire met for a day-long tournament of football and French-inspired activities at the University of Southampton's Wide Lane sports ground. They competed in French-themed quizzes, artwork contests and cheerleading - along with a football tournament. Modern Languages staff and students were on hand to referee the games in French and involve participants in a range of language learning activities off the pitch.

The pupils were just some of the eight hundred in Key Stage 3 that had been studying French in class for 10 weeks using a programme of football-related resources called Score in French devised by Dr Ian McCall, in collaboration with Southampton FC. The extensive resource pack includes videos focussing on Saints French footballers Romain Gasmi and Morgan Schneiderlin, as well as a host of other football-related language activities.

Score in French is just one of several Routes into Languages projects being run by Modern Languages at Southampton.

Some video clips of the day are available:

• Video Diary (7.5 minutes): Watch online or Download High Quality [Quicktime .MOV, 192MB]
• News Feature from Meridian News (Approx 2 minutes): Watch Online or Download High Quality [Mpeg Video .mpg, 57MB]

To view the photos from the day click here

Forty pupils from four schools in Brighton and West Sussex took part in Languages on Film at Brighton University on Tuesday 20th January.  Pupils teamed up with each other to produce short films in French and German.  It was a fantastic opportunity for them to use their language skills in a different setting, as well as to experience what it is like to work in a TV studio. 

The pupils were also given a presentation on languages and careers by the Goethe Institute; followed by a Japanese lesson from Cactus Languages; and short workshops with Lighthouse, a local media company and a group of student ambassadors who answered questions about studying languages and university life. 

After lunch pupils were shown their films on a big screen in one of the lecture theatres whilst copies of the films were pressed onto DVDs for them to take back to school.  Feedback has been tremendously positive, with pupils returning to school full of enthusiasm for languages!

To see photographs of the event, please visit http://www.patchamhigh.brighton-hove.sch.uk/index.htm