Languages Week Scotland 2022 in schools
Find out how schools in Scotland celebrated Languages Week Scotland 2022
It's not too late to let us know how you celebrated. Why not complete this form with a short description and some photos and we will upload your school's activities.
The whole school celebrated many different languages and cultures including Scots, Spanish, German, Gaelic, French, Chinese, Estonian, Russian, Hungarian, and Dutch. Each class chose a country to study- They looked at language, culture, customs, art, food and famous people.
The aim was to help everyone recognise the importance of language and culture within a rights respecting context. The week included literacy, language learning, numeracy, dance, song, poetry recital, cooking, model making and even pilates!
Why not watch this video on YouTube where pupils from the school share the fabulous multicultural and multilingual way in which Hermitage Primary celebrated Languages Week Scotland.
We used languages week to celebrate the diversity within our school and think about the variety of languages and cultures represented by pupils and staff. We then created a short video with a range of greetings and phrases in different languages.
P1-4 learned about Chinese New Year, watched the latest video from our partner school in France and learned about Henri Matisse. P5-7 rounded off their block of Mandarin language learning planning their Beijing opera masks and made some French posters for our school encouraging us to be eco-friendly!
There was lots of singing throughout the week! A huge well done to everyone!
To celebrate Languages Week Scotland, S1 and S2 took part in a banner competition.
Senior pupils took part in a Q&A Googlemeet link up with undergraduates from the University of Aberdeen Modern Languages department.
Pupils also enjoyed Norwegian lessons delivered by our German Educational Trainee, Manuela.
Pupils throughout the school enjoyed participating in daily challenges, set by Mr Champlin, our PT. At the close of the week, our HT and DHT awarded Languages Star of the Week to pupils who had shone in their engagement with languages that week! The children in "The Hive" (our Enhanced Provision) also celebrated diversity, unity and inclusion by learning a signed song in Makaton, which includes spoken greetings from all around the world. Here are some highlights:
Our school took part in a language challenge throughout the Primary 1 to Primary 7 classes. This was done as a way to celebrate the diversity within our school and be inclusive of a variety of languages and cultures. Miss Abimbola and Dr Parnell put together the challenge sheet and a Google Slides presentation about Languages Week Scotland, which was distributed through the school. All of the challenges were posted on Twitter by class teachers. We also handed out a prize for the winning class and a certificate of completion for each class.
This week our Modern Language Ambassadors started off Languages Week by teaching other classes how to sing head, shoulders knees and toes in French. We also learned all about the Eiffel Tower and created our own drawings. We then looked a little at the Mexican artist Frida Kahlo and created our own portraits of her and wrote some super facts about her life.
P7S have been celebrating Languages Week Scotland by creating posters on their Connected Falkirk iPads showing how to say ‘welcome/hello’ in different languages across the World.
As part of Language Week Scotland we asked our pupils to create a card (anonymously if they wished) to say thank you in French or Spanish to a member of staff at Wallace High School. We asked them to think of any member of staff who may have showed kindness in some way, they might have helped them somehow or simply have been kind, understanding or a good listener. We wanted to spread positivity and give everyone a boost near the end of term! Our pupils were so creative! So many staff commented on how uplifting it was to get the card in their pigeon hole or delivered personally too! Merci et Gracias!
In S1 our pupils do the 'School' topic in French or Italian. They then use the language learned in class to create PowerPoints in groups which they present to their peers. We choose groups to present their PowerPoints to the P7 pupils in our associate primaries. Due to Covid this year we sent recordings of the pupils to the primaries to show our P7s. This is very useful from a transition point of view as the P7s get an idea of what they will learn in language classes as well as getting information about the school.
Presentation 1 (French)
Presentation 2 (Italian)
St Ninian's High School pupils and staff participated in a variety of exciting activities for Languages Week Scotland 2022. We kicked off the week by exploring the benefits of language learning and the jobs which need languages. Pupils watched interviews of people working in football, music, law, and business, and learned that languages can open doors to lots of different careers. Groups researched famous French and Spanish people, food, places, and festivals, and presented their findings to the rest of their class. The week coincided with Chinese New Year, and many dressed up for the occasion with celebrations including games, puppets and music and dance workshops. A Spanish cafe was hosted for S1 with pupils role-playing the 'camarero' and 'cliente'. Our S1 & S5 Depute Head Teacher, Suzanne Boyle, stopped by our ‘Café Español’ and joined in the fun with some excellent Spanish. Finally, we concluded our week of fun by celebrating the fantastic efforts of our Modern Languages Superstars of the Month. A huge well done to everyone!
