MFL Gifted and Talented
At the end of last term a group of over 40 Year 10 students were invited to attend an afternoon in the Modern Foreign Languages faculty, learning about the benefits of language learning beyond GCSE level as well as its value in the workplace.
The faculty organised some international food and inspirational guest speakers, including current Year 12 languages students, former St Bart’s students and speakers from industry and Bristol University. One former student, Victoria, had previously worked in a library in Rio de Janeiro with a view of Sugar Loaf mountain, and having recently gained her Doctorate from Cambridge University, she is now working at Bristol University. We also heard from a friend of Mrs Hedley-Smith who used his languages travelling the world as an international DJ and also works for the Warner Bros theme park in Madrid. Our former Head Boy, Joel, returned to talk about his course at Exeter University. Heis about to embark on his year abroad in Germany, teaching English as a second language.
Other fun activities included the Languages Olympiad challenge in Esperanto and a quiz on how useful languages are, where they are spoken and could the talented linguists “guess the language being spoken?!”
Students also had the opportunity to try out a new language: Polish, Urdu, Italian or Chinese – to show that it is never too late to start learning a new one! The students were very positive about the afternoon, as is shown by some of the comments given on the feedback forms:
“It was really fun and I will recommend it to younger years who will have the opportunity to do this”
“Me divertí mucho!!” ( I had a great time!)
“I thought it was really useful. We learnt about what A Level lessons look like and were able to talk to former students and hear about what they do now.”