This year, we are once again applying for Re accreditation for the International School Award; an award which celebrates our school’s commitment to create teaching opportunities for children to learn about the world in which they live and their role in it as active global citizens. We launched our application this year with Languages and Culture theme week in October 2020.
We kicked off the week with a Zoom house assembly, where children from EYFS to Year 6 learned about what culture is and the different languages spoken in our school. It was a great way of seeing what children in different year groups had been doing in the first half term. In their class bubbles, children then created unique self-portraits, expressing not only how they see themselves, but also celebrating the elements that make up their own individual culture and identity.
Throughout the week, each year group linked their curriculum work to a language they had chosen. Some of the languages that were chosen are pertinent to our school community because they are spoken by our pupils and staff! Class-based activities explored different aspects of the diverse cultures in which the children’s chosen language is spoken through geography, history, art and music:
Nursery – Spanish/Polish
In Nursery we enjoyed learning some new words in Spanish and Polish. We sang a song to help us learn our colours in Spanish and we loved learning how to Salsa dance! Every day we listened to lots of different music – we really enjoyed ‘Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes in Polish!
Reception – Turkish
In Reception, we loved learning all about Turkey for languages and culture theme week. We liked learning the dance and engaged so well in learning the new language. We also loved the sensory element of smelling Turkish coffee and exploring the Turkish artefacts.
Year 1 – French
We learned about France in theme week! We learned French colours and greetings and practised speaking with our friends. We feel very clever for learning two languages now – French and Spanish!
Year 2 – Portuguese
In Year 2, we really enjoyed finding out about Portuguese speaking countries and their culture. We looked at music from Brazil and danced the Samba in our fantastic flag hats!
Year 3 – Polish
In Year 3, some of our classmates speak Polish, so we learned to speak some key phrases and the numbers 1-10. Also, we created traditional Polish wycinanki folk art to decorate our windows, which we now have on display!
Year 4 – Hungarian
In Year 4, we enjoyed learning about Mrs. Kasza’s home country, Hungary. We made zig-zag fact files, bookmarks using a traditional art style and learned that a sneeze sounds different in Hungarian!
Year 5 – Welsh
We loved learning and speaking Welsh, especially for greetings and the colours for giving our dinners choices in class. We learned about communities around the world where Welsh is spoken and were particularly enamoured by how a language spoken in Wales could end up being spoken in Patagonia in Argentina!
Year 6 – German
We thoroughly enjoyed learning about Germany, as it linked to our Autumn topic (WWII) and had a great German language lesson, where we created cartoons about greetings and introductions. We loved the opportunity the assemblies gave us to celebrate other children’s languages and cultures.
Additionally, our children particularly loved the ‘dance-around-the-world’ project that ran during this week, where they learned and performed a dance from their chosen culture to authentic music!
We ended the week with another Zoom assembly to showcase and share the wonderful work our children had created. The week was a true celebration of our individual personal identities and how these come together to create the diverse community and culture of our school.
