Our Languages Department have been very busy – here is an update from Magali Nicol, Head of Languages & Helen Ronan, Head of Latin
What a treat to be able to visit Nursery this week! The children were very attentive and enjoyed listening to stories in French. They were keen to repeat the key sounds from the books; they learnt a couple of colours and the words grand and petit. I am looking forward to seeing them again to read them Christmas stories and share French Christmas traditions with them.
Reception have practised greetings and how to introduce themselves in their first French lesson with Miss Hanbury. They are now looking at fruit and singing “J’aime les fruits”!
Since the children in Year 1 are learning all about space, it was the perfect opportunity to read Mimi la Fourmi de l’Espace this week which also included colours and weather, two topics we learnt this term. We also looked at how days of the week are linked to the names of the planets in French. As ever, the children worked with great enthusiasm and were eager to learn.
Year 2 are enjoying the languages carousel and the classes have just switched languages this week. The children were introduced to the art of flamenco dancing and gave it their best! ¡Estupendo!
What a great start to the year from Year 3! We have been using Salut and Linguascope in our lessons to learn a wide range of new vocabulary and develop our listening and reading skills; the children have shown their competitive side and are always aiming for the highest score on all games in order to get the best prize out of the Goo machine!
Year 4 have been so busy with their Monster designs. We first learned body parts, played lots of Jacques a dit (Simon Says), learned Alouette, then looked at plurals and adjective agreements. The pupils consolidated their learning by creating fabulous both scary and kind Monsters with lots of great labelling and sentence writing! Excellent effort Year 4!
Superb effort from Year 5s this term who have worked hard on their literacy skills by writing in paragraphs, thinking about word order and applying adjectival agreement. A special well done for completing a challenging task on sports where they showed perseverance when reading longer texts with unfamiliar vocabulary. They should be very proud of themselves! Bravo!
For Latin in Year 5 we have been introducing the lives of a real Roman family who lived in Britain 2000 years ago. The pupils found it interesting to see that even that long ago teachers were telling children off for doodling on their work.
Tu veux aller …?
Lots of fun and interactive learning has been happening in Year 6. The pupils created their own role-plays to ask each other out and extend their work with both rejections and acceptances! Good old Amesbury acting skills and confidence along with some very amusing props simply added to the enjoyment for all!
Year 6s Latin focus has been on grammar for the last couple of week, but to lighten the mood this week we looked at the myth of Odysseus and Circe, and the pupils produced some lovely storyboards.
The focus has mainly been on grammar this term for Years 7 and 8 in French. Whilst Year 7 have been talking about their use of the internet and what they read as well as what they watch on TV, Year 8 have been working on the topic of home and refining their grammatical knowledge of the past, present and future tenses. They have risen to the challenges of the intricacies of the French language and produced some excellent videos of their house and worked hard for their listening and reading assessments.
Year 7 have made a great start to Spanish and are particularly enjoying the paired speaking activities whilst Year 8 have produced some superb family trees and are now learning about hobbies.
Year 7 and 8 Latin lessons are very much language based and we have been exploring the etymology of words and translating some interesting passages on the Trojan War and Persephone and Hades.
Well done All!
Magali Nicol, Head of Languages & Helen Ronan, Head of Latin
