languages newsletter summer 2023

DANE COURT LANGUAGES A YEAR IN LANGUAGES

Welcome to the Dane Court languages department round up of the year. This year has felt very much business as usual compared to the last few years, so clubs, trips, events and talks have definitely been back on the agenda. All students at Dane Court have the opportunity to study two languages from years 7 to 9, and according to a recent article in the Guardian, this puts our lower school students in a very select group of young people: only 16% of all state schools in England teach every pupil two languages in years 7-9. Equally, having three languages on offer in Key Stage 3 puts Dane Court on the map: two thirds of state schools only offer one language. German and Japanese also make Dane Court stand out, with only 35% of state schools having German on their curriculum. Dane Court is a special place to be for language learning, and we were recognised for this by a letter from the education minister in November, praising the number of students taking a language at GCSE level. 96% of students took a language GCSE last year, putting us amongst the top schools in England and we have almost 20 Year 10 students starting 2 language GCSEs in September, which is a positive reflection of the approach to teaching and learning now in place in Key Stage 3. If you would like to know more about our approach, please follow this link. The year started by celebrating the successes of our GCSE students and ended with an excellent set of IB results. Congratulations to everyone for all their hard work - teachers and students! We hope you enjoy reading about what has been a busy year in the Dane Court languages department: there is plenty more to look forward to next year, with residentials planned, beginning with the Year 11 trip to Spain in September. Year 10 are off to Germany in December, with Years 9 & 10 visiting France in June next summer. Theatre visits are planned for Year 12 Spanish students to watch a live performances of the play that they study, year 8 hope to visit the Goethe Institut in London, more BFI film visits for Key Stage 3 and we plan to have an international dimension to many of the careers events that take place for each year group, as well as continuing with all the projects started this year. The PTA and the Spanish department are part funding three return visits by the Onatti theatre company next year, so we must say a big merci, danke schön and gracias in advance: this will benefit every single student in Key Stage 3. Have a great summer, and we look forward to welcoming our new year 7 in September to start them on their language journeys!

EUROPEAN DAY OF LANGUAGES, 26 SEPT The European Day of Languages (EDOL) is celebrated across Europe on the 26th of September every year. It aims to promote the rich linguistic diversity of Europe and raise awareness of the importance of lifelong language learning for everyone. We celebrated this in school with a multilingual quiz completed during mentor time as a house activity.

ST. NICOLAS POSTER COMPETITION, DECEMBER 2022

MANGA DRAWING CLUB: BY MADEL, YEAR 13 Manga club has been my longest running commitment throughout my entire school life and I'm proud to say it. I've met so many amazing people through it and it has brought me so much joy. Since we first started, the members came and went but everyone I had met and got to know definitely changed me one way or another. The club originally started because my classmates and I had a shared love for art, anime and Japanese as a culture and language - but the club developed over time from just focusing on art to exploring the culture. To be honest, some of the things I learnt were new to me as well. As a sixth form student who had taken Japanese, being able to share what I learn was an amazing experience - especially since Japanese isn't taught until sixth form. Manga club was and probably will always be my favourite club to have joined and participated in leading. Thank you to everyone who came to any of our days, and thank you especially to the few that stayed.

GERMAN CHRISTMAS BAKING: BY AIDEN AND ISAAC, YEAR 12

MFL LOGO COMPETITION

MFL FILM CLUB: BY SOPHIE B AND AMELIA B, YEAR 9 Film club is an opportunity to discover films from other countries and in other languages- we have watched Italian, German and Spanish films so far. These films were different from films we would normally watch and it was nice to discover something new. We feel like this has expanded our film knowledge in terms of different production and script writing techniques. Furthermore, we have been exposed to other languages spoken by native speakers which is a nice change from our classmates. One of the films we watched was an Oscar- winning Italian language film called ‘La vita è bella’ (Life is Beautiful). It is set during World War 2 from the perspective of a Jewish family, who later ended up in a concentration camp. It showed the struggles of a father trying to protect his young son from the horrors of the camp using humour to shield him. In conclusion we would definitely recommend this club to other students. It’s a great way to spend lunchtime eating food and watching films. Thank you to Miss Allen for organising this club.

YEAR 12 LANGUAGE CONFERENCE, UNIVERSITY OF KENT, JANUARY 2022: BY MIKEY, YEAR 12 In January, some of the year 12 MFL students went to the Sixth Form MFL Conference at University of Kent. There were all sorts of speakers in all different languages, including representatives from the French and Spanish embassies, as well as the Goethe Institut. There were also short sessions for various languages including Japanese and Mandarin Chinese aimed at people who hadn't studied these languages before. I went to the German sessions (all spoken in German) and they were all very different - and very interesting. The first session was about all aspects of German culture, delivered by the representative from the Goethe Institut. The second session was delivered by an Austrian woman working for the Langton institute for languages - all about the history of Red Bull, one of the world's most famous Austrian companies. The final session was delivered by a Swiss man working at the university, in which he detailed all kinds of Swiss folklore, myth and legend. All of the sessions were very enjoyable, although it was certainly a great challenge to understand all of what was being said!

SPANISH ONATTI PLAY MI PERSONALIDAD: 16 JANUARY On Monday 16 January, some of our year 8, 9 and 12 students who are studying Spanish assembled in the theatre to watch the Onatti Theatre Company perform a wonderfully funny play, entitled 'Mi Personalidad (My personality)'. The play was delivered entirely in Spanish by two professional Spanish actors. The students absolutely loved it and were talking in Spanish afterwards. When they were first told about the play, they were a little apprehensive about how much they would be able to understand so it was brilliant to see them engaged and participating during the performance. The play is all about identity. It’s Fernando’s first day at University and he is trying to make friends, however, it doesn’t go well at all, and so, he tries out different personalities with the help of a mysterious acquaintance… Here’s what some of our students said: “We were happily surprised to see how engaging the show was. There was a good balance of educational and entertaining aspects.” - Year 12 ab initio students. “It was so entertaining and really easy to understand and follow.” - Year 9 student. “It was very funny, the comedy was perfect and the props were really good”. - Year 9 student

YEAR 13 JAPANESE COOKING: FEBRUARY BY LIBBY, YEAR 13 In our IBCP Language Development class, we had a Japanese cooking lesson and made two different Japanese noodle dishes. The steps to both of the recipes were simple and easy to follow. We worked well together as a group to make chicken udon noodle soup which was my personal favourite and soba noodle. The soba noodles were noodles served with dipping sauce. Fin and Amy said 'It was really enjoyable. The dishes tasted very nice and flavoursome and everyone ate lots of it. It gave us an interesting and fun insight on a common dish they eat in Japan'. Ms Myers commented 'It was great to see the students enjoyed cooking and tried the Japanese noodle dishes. Some students asked me to share the recipes as they wanted to make it again! I hope the lesson encouraged the students to be open minded to try something new from other countries. Well done, everyone.’

JAPANESE CULTURE CLUB: BY TIA, YEAR 12 The Japanese Culture Club has been running for the last few months in order to teach students of all ages beginner Japanese, as well as discuss elements of Japanese Culture. The club has taught multiple students Hiragana, one of three Japanese alphabet systems as well as varying Kanji and offering insight into activities such as Origami and Japanese tradition such as flower viewing! Running the club has been an exciting experience and has allowed sixth formers like myself to support our own learning on the course from Myers Sensei whilst also teaching others! It’s always so exciting to be able to teach people how to write their own name in Katakana or help translate things they’ve seen or heard in an anime or show! The club has been so exciting to run and I hope to see more members next year and some familiar faces! さようなら (goodbye in Japanese)！

FRENCH ONATTI PLAY PARLEZ-VOUS FRANÇAIS: 9 FEBRUARY BY LYLA, 7S The story …… On the school skiing trip to France, if one of the children was going to have an accident it would be Archie. Yes, sure enough, on day one, his fooling around has ended him in hospital.Then, when his teacher is called away to deal with another emergency, Archie is left alone in the hospital where nobody speaks English. It is very amusing to watch as Archie tries to get by with his basic French - with hilarious consequences. Here’s what the students made of it all….. In February some of the year 7 classes watched a French play called Parlez-vous français? (do you speak French?). It was about a boy who went on a ski trip in France with his school and he ended up hurting his leg. He then went to a French hospital and had to try to understand what the woman was saying to him. I think this play definitely tested our knowledge when it came to what we knew about the French language outside of school. We also had the opportunity to interact with the actors when they came into the audience to ask us questions. These language plays really help with our understanding of that language and even offer new key vocabulary we haven't heard of before.

GERMAN ONATTI PLAY IM ALTEN SALOON: 29 MARCH BY........ The story …… Saddle up your horse and let's go back to the Wild West. It is 1856 in some dusty town in the Midwest of America. The old Saloon has run into financial difficulties and needs to find some money and fast. The cash prize offered for the city \"talent\" contest sounds like a great idea. But it ‘ant going be easy finding anyone in this “backyard” town with even an ounce of talent. Here’s what the students made of it all…..

GERMAN TRIP TO THE BRITISH FILM INSTITUTE: 25 MAY BY GABRIELLA, 9N2 Family, identity and culture in German cinema: a study day using films to explore German culture through the lens of identity and diversity. I really enjoyed the German trip to the British Film Institute in London, as throughout the day it was engaging and interesting. We were given leaflets to fill in which I thought were very useful as there were lots of questions to answer which helped me think about my thoughts and responses to the clips that were shown on the big screen. The leaflets also taught me some new German vocabulary which are proving to be beneficial in my classes. I loved watching all of the short clips and listening to other students from different schools respond to the questions and games with the German that they had learnt on the trip. The woman leading the talk was always trying to get different children to participate, and give them a chance to vocalise their thoughts about the clips, while also encouraging them to use the new German vocabulary that they had learnt when communicating their opinions. The film “Berlin 36” that we watched was very insightful and thrilling. Watching the film in German made me realise how much German I could pick up from everyday conversation, and this is only possible because of the amazing teaching at Dane Court. Not only did I have an amazing time learning new words and phrases in German, but I absolutely loved learning how to use them in casual conversation when expressing my views about a film.

MS BAYLIS AND HER LIFE IN JAPAN.

YEAR 8 SPANISH COOKING: JUNE 2023 BY ……, YEAR 8

YEAR 8 WORLD LANGUAGES DAY, UNIVERSITY OF KENT: 4 JULY BY ……, YEAR 8 30 Year 8 students attended the University of Kent’s World Languages Day, which is organised in partnership with local schools. World Languages Day is intended to give students an opportunity to try some new activities linked to languages - even to try a new language. Some of the activities on offer this year included the languages of Bollywood, African drumming, Latin, Japanese and Norwegian amongst others. Here’s what some of our students had to say about the day: …….

LANGUAGES AND JOURNALISM IN CAREERS: 10 JULY BY ……, YEAR 10 Enrique Rocio from the Consejeria de Educación …….

HIROSHIMA TALK: JULY Mr Hiroyuki Tanaka gave online talks about the Hiroshima atomic bomb for Year 12 Language Development classes in Term 5 and 6. Mr Tanaka is from Hiroshima and his first-hand accounts from his family members who experienced the bomb provided our students with a profound understanding of the events. Here are some students’ reflections and messages to Mr Tanaka. ‘Thank you, it was a great presentation that I learned a lot from’. ‘I appreciate you reflecting on your past to show us the reality of what happened’. ‘Thank you very much for educating us with an unbiased opinion and some true stories from the event’. ‘I found it very interesting and was very shocked at how severe and hot the bomb was. (3,000-4,000°C)’. ‘I learned so much from the presentation. It was really really really interesting’. The presentation Mr Tanaka provided for our students to learn about and reflect on the Hiroshima atomic bomb was invaluable. It offered them a deeper perspective and encouraged thoughtful contemplation of the historical event.

DANE COURT INTERNATIONAL DAY: 13 JULY

IKEBANA CLUB (JAPANESE FLOWER ARRANGING) Ikebana club is a delightful experience in which a group of year 12 students arranged and displayed a variety of flowers and foliage in creative and satisfying ways. After Ms Myers taught us the basic rules and methods to arrange the flowers, we all individually made our own arrangement. The flowers proved to be beautiful displays of harmony and peace; not only were they incredible to look at but also were calming to make. Tia mentioned ‘I’d never thought I’d particularly enjoy flower arrangement, however Ikebana was so different to typical European arrangements. I found myself really thinking about how to arrange the petals and stems. The club atmosphere was so quiet and secure; it was really a safe place to experiment with something new and enjoy it. I’ve just bought my own Ikebana supplies to practise at home!’ Miss Bowen who also attended the club commented ‘how lucky we are to have access to this wonderful practice, thank you Ms Myers for your time and knowledge and patience. I have been doing this at home with my 6 year old and have bought my own Ikebana tools.” This club was a great way to end the week and helped relieve the stress of school work. ありがとう(arigatou: Thank you in Japanese)

JAPANESE CALLIGRAPHY: JULY 2023