GDST Languages Festival

Last Friday, 12 pupils from Year 7, eight pupils from Year 8, and four pupils from Year 9 went to Sutton High School to participate in the GDST Languages Festival.

When we arrived, we were shown into the hall and given a brief introduction to the day ahead and what activities lay in store for us.

We were shown statistics that showed how many people actually have the necessary skills to get a job involving foreign languages and we learned about a few inspirational individuals who had learned a new language in order to fulfil their career aspirations. Understanding how few people have these skills highlighted to us why languages are so important. We were surprised to learn about polyglots, people who can speak multiple languages, and to discover that 40% of the world’s population are monolingual and 43% are bilingual.

Once we finished listening to this guest speaker, it was time to begin our activities. Year 7 took part in a spelling bee, where they competed against other GDST schools to spell words in French, Spanish, and German. Year 8 attended a culture quiz, in which they had to answer questions about French, Spanish, German, and Latin festivals, food, geography, celebrities, and television programmes (although the latter not in Latin!). Year 9 rehearsed their Latin by participating in a comedy sketch.

Upon completing these activities, we took a quick break in the hall before proceeding to the next set of activities. Year 7 grouped together to learn ‘Let It Go’ from Frozen in many different languages, Year 9 continued to rehearse and then performed their Latin play, and Year 8 attended an interesting workshop on how to create your own language by following a few simple steps and techniques employed by linguists. After our busy morning of activities, we enjoyed a tasty lunch in the hall.

In the afternoon, it was time for Year 7 to perform their amazing version of ‘Let It Go’. After this performance, pupils from Year 8 – including Tara from Croydon High – spoke a few sentences in the new language they had devised in their workshop. An awards ceremony was then held to reward the best teams in the culture quiz and one of the Year 8 teams – comprised of Meg, Malina, Freya, and Tara – came third place. All the pupils did extremely well and every team should be proud of their results! Lastly, the day finished with performances from the winning Year 9 plays.

Altogether, it was a great day and we felt very privileged and thankful to attend.

Louise and Meg

Year 8