Douglas Academy

On Thursday the 25th of September we had our annual celebration of European Day of Languages at Douglas Academy.  There were various events taking place which allowed us to recognise and celebrate the extensive range and diversity of languages spoken in our school community.  There was a European themed lunch in the canteen which included dishes such as Russian blini, Spanish omelette, poisson-frites and German bratwurst.

There was a treasure hunt for S3 where pupils had to race around the school to find out about teachers (other than modern languages teachers!) who have knowledge of other languages and cultures. Every year group had a special lesson prepared when they came to their modern languages classes; for example a national anthem quiz for S4, a look at idioms in other languages for S5/6, singing ‘Old MacDonald’ in Latin for S2 and reading extracts of Harry Potter in German, Italian, Spanish and French for S3.

For S1 there was a poster competition entitled ‘Why learn a language?’ and for senior pupils there was an essay in the foreign language of the same title.

Well done to all our prize-winners and to everyone who took part.  It was a great day and hopefully in a small way was successful in celebrating and promoting language learning for all and in recognising the cultural diversity which exists both within our school and wider community.

Our Lady's High School

Our Lady’s High School in Cumbernauld embraced and enjoyed European Day of Languages on Thursday 25th September 2014 with a wide range of activities for S1-S6.

Our S1 pupils were creative and used Passport to the European Union booklets to choose a European country and designed their own posters which included interesting facts on their chosen country, the flag, the language spoken and “hello” in that language. The winners received a prize!

Our S2 were put to the test with a quiz on Europe and had to use all their resources including Let’s Explore Europe booklets to find the answers. The top 3 in each class won a prize!

Our S3 enjoyed a French breakfast and Eurovision Song Contest where they had to listen carefully to the song and decide the language, the singer and their nationality. Not as easy as they thought!

S4 went on holiday! Pupils worked cooperatively in groups to present their last holiday using a variety of media. Presentations covered where they went, how they travelled etc.

S5/6 enjoyed a Film Festival. S5/6 Spanish watched El Orfanato and S5/6 French enjoyed Jean de Florette in true cinema style with freshly made popcorn.

Even our Confucius Hub embraced European Day of Languages and looked at the different countries and languages of Europe in Mandarin!

Finally, our canteen pulled out all the stops and celebrated the day also with a full European menu on offer! Pupils enjoyed Spaghetti Carbonara; Lachaniko Moussaka and Macaroni au gratin to name a few.

A great time was had by all!

Craigmount High School

At Craigmount High School we had a European Languages poster competition where students could use any European Languages to create their own poster design. Older students designed posters about the importance of learning a language to tie in with their National 5 learning. Younger students did any design and information they desired and S1 did it about a country they would like to live in and why. All completed posters received one of the EDL materials as a prize.

We also watched “If the world were a village of 100 people” which highlighted languages, religions and cultures. The students were very surprised by some of the facts.

St Joseph's Academy

This year at Saint Joseph's Academy, we decided to host our first Primary 7 Transition Day in line with European Day of Languages. We held a joint S1/P7 Mass which saw several pupils offer bidding prayers in their native tongue. Feedback from staff and pupils was that it was truly fascinating and inspirational hearing all the different languages, for example Russian, Spanish and Polish. 

The Primary 7 students then took part in a carousel of Europe and language focused activities in the Modern Languages Department. There was a European Language Treasure Hunt, A Crack-the-Code flag challenge, a 'Europe Drive' where pupils competed to build a map of Europe using the dice and everyone belted out the ‘Hokey Cokey’ in Gaelic. It was an action-packed and fun-filled morning and all P7 students went away knowing a bit more about not only the school and the Modern Languages Department but a mini-booklet that they can finish and share with those at home.

Thanks to the support of the canteen staff, a special European themed menu was served and the dining area was decorated with flags, posters and information about all the different languages spoken in our school. 

All classes and staff were encouraged to get involved by involving languages or Europe within their lessons or perhaps by saying the daily prayer in French or Spanish. Staff also completed a multiple choice quiz based on European Languages. 

The European Day of Languages was the focus in Home Room this week, which saw pupils every day think about, discuss and debate what is preferable - living in a mono-lingual or multi-lingual world. An on-line survey that classes completed shows that the majority of students are very much in favour of languages and decided that it would be boring if we all spoke one language and that it is important to our cultural identity.

Tobermory High School

Tobermory High School began its European Day of Languages celebrations in advance of the day itself. S1 and S2 wrote letters and made bookmarks to send around Europe as part of a postcard exchange and have been delighted to receive postcards in return from Italy to Lithuania and most places in between.  

Classes also began to make bunting - each part of the bunting says "what time is it?" in a language other than English and this was hung around the Town Clock in Tobermory on the 26 September.  

No Tobermory High Language celebration is complete without the traditional language breakfast.  S4 and S5 language students joined with S1 as well as staff to share breakfast and languages. This year S1 were able to practise their French with the seniors as well as their Gaelic with the Fluent Speakers in the class. They also learned some Spanish and Sign Language from S1 pupils who speak these languages and Polish from one of the staff.

St Margaret's Primary School

St Margaret’s Primary School in Polmont have been making a huge effort to introduce some French to all classes during Term 1 and everyone took part in the European Day of Languages.

Here is some of what was going on in our school:

Nursery – Days of the week in French.

P1 and P2 – French Café, Jack and the Beanstalk in French.

P3 – One class looked at greetings and numbers in Spanish and one looked at the alphabet and numbers in German.

P4 – One class did the Hungry Caterpillar in French and the food he eats and the other class did French songs, colours and days of the week.

P5 – One class did a French café and the other did Arabic phrases.

P6 – Days of the week and months of the year.

P7 – One class did an introduction to Spanish and one class learned about clothing in French.

Currie Community High School

The European Day of Languages is a time to celebrate the 6,000+ languages spoken around the world, to promote language learning and to have some multilingual fun! On 24th September, an S1 class from Currie Community High School in Edinburgh, celebrated the European Day of Languages with a French twist. Jordan Wilson very kindly brought us French croissants and pains au chocolat that we all enjoyed while doing the SCILT European Day of Languages quiz and watching some topic related videos.

#EDL2014

European Day of Languages 2014 is fast approaching and we have lots of ideas and resources on our website to help you celebrate - http://t.co/0vB4us0e04.

We would love to find out how schools across Scotland are celebrating EDL 2014, so please send your stories and pictures to scilt@strath.ac.uk.

If you are on Twitter, follow #EDL2014 for all the latest news.