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School: Milne's High School Project: Five different projects involving five partners agencies and three year groups Level: Silver Date: June 2023
Milne’s High School’s submission consisted of five projects covering an exciting and engaging range of activities.
A representative from VS, who uses foreign languages in their job on a daily basis, spoke to S3 pupils about the work of VS, employment opportunities within the company and the value of being able to speak another language in the tourism industry. Pupils then created a short video, by editing footage provided by VS and adding their own captions in French. VS judged the videos and tweeted the winning one.
Pupils looked at the Dowans Hotel and the VMS websites and used them to create brochures in French, incorporating VMS slogans and hashtags, to promote the hotel and the highlights of Moray Speyside to young French visitors. The brochures were judged by the hotel manager.
As part of a unit of work on holidays in French, pupils researched French speaking destinations around the world in their English classes. They worked with their English teachers to create presentations in English, using persuasive language, that advertised their location as a holiday destination. They created powerpoints with visuals only, and no text. Gemma Cruickshank, CEO of VMS, visited the school to judge the finalists’ presentations.
The centre manager spoke to pupils about the work of the local dolphin centre and how valuable being able to speak a second language is in tourism and conservation. Pupils then created cue cards for the café and shop staff to use with French speaking visitors. Pupils devised and delivered a mini lesson in French to the centre manager, and her staff, who selected the winning group.
Following a unit of work on parts of the body, symptoms and first aid techniques in French, a First Aid trainer visited the school to work with S2 French pupils. Pupils learned the techniques in French and were given practical, hands-on experience of carrying out lifesaving first aid in English.
This is an outstanding submission from Milne’s High School. The range and scope of projects involved across BGE is exemplary and there is such a good balance of local and global focus within them. The submission consists of a really creative and varied range of projects designed to be totally relevant to life and genuine local experiences.
The verification team particularly appreciated the First Aid activity – this is an activity that we have never seen before for this award yet it is such a practical thing for a medical professional to use language skills to reassure and communicate with people in distress and/or in need of clear communication in a language other than English. We could really see how this, and the other projects, arise naturally from the curriculum. The strong interdisciplinary thread is very commendable too.
We are delighted to award a SILVER Scottish Languages Employability Award to this submission – well done! This is in fact an excellent example of a submission which goes beyond Silver level; with the addition of German into the Scottish Dolphin Centre project next session, we would very much encourage Milne’s High School to apply for a Gold Award next session as it will then meet the criteria of using more than one other language.
Huge congratulations again on such an excellent submission!