Languages Week 2023

Tuesday 26 September commemorates the European Day of Languages and, as is the custom at St Bartholomew’s, we celebrated this day with full aplomb! Students in Y7 and Y8 decorated a flag in a style either of one of the languages that they currently study or for a country that they are interested in. It coincided with the Open Evening and so we asked visitors who came to view the school to vote for their favourite flag as they took a tour down the corridor. The bunting was absolutely beautiful this year with many fabulous entries- all the students should be very proud of the collective effort to make the Languages corridor a truly inviting space.

We also did not want to limit the celebrations to one day, and so dedicated the week to celebrating different languages from across the world. As well as the bunting flags, there were different meals in the canteen with culinary delights from a range of countries, a treasure hunt to find staff who speak different languages from different faculties, and translation activities for our older year groups and also a general knowledge quiz to celebrate famous inventors, mathematicians and historical figures. There has been a real buzz about the cultural richness learning a language can bring and as they say in Spanish: ‘un idioma nuevo es una vida nueva’ = a new language brings a new life!