SENIOR
ARTS & LANGUAGES Modern Foreign Languages It is a difficult task to highlight the huge number of excellent events and achievements that have filled this term for the Languages Faculty and Kellett students. The inaugural FOBISIA Language Perfect Championship, proudly hosted by Kellett School, was not only ground-breaking as a concept, but also produced some staggering statistics - 17 schools spread across 9 countries participated, 7,400 FOBISIA students answered in excess of 8.5 million questions over the 10 days, which represented 42,000 hours of independent language learning. Whilst ABC International School Vietnam led their students to victory over Kellett, it was an excellent event for everybody involved and one that we hope will be repeated on an annual basis. The following students received gold, silver and bronze awards for their excellent participation:
Student
Points
Matilda Marchand Florence Clifford
5,803 3,001
Gold Award
Silver Award
Bronze Award
William Hicks Charlotte Bird Takano Kobayashi
2,308 2,027 2,007
Rose Duckworth Mia Hornett Anandita Malhotra Wassim Bermak Gabrielle Roper Abigail Riggs Hunter Bannigan-Davis Viren Hirani Victoria Leung Keith Cheung Alex Hussey Molly Hammond Anahita Kaman Tara Trinh Long Long Turner
1,751 1,672 1,655 1,464 1,390 1,352 1,280 1,234 1,227 1,173 1,172 1,153 1,118 1,038 1,037
Another first was our students and staff engaging with the Hong Kong French Film Festival, organised by L’Alliance Française. Students from Years 9 to 13 attended showings of Les Vacances du Petit Nicolas, La Belle et La Bête and La Cour de Babel at the IFC Palace. This was a fantastic opportunity for students to access contemporary French cinema in HK – much fun was had by all. Generous contributions to the Annual Fund allowed us to invite the British band ‘Transition’ to Kellett School. The artists from Bristol have found wide spread success throughout Asia performing songs in both English and Mandarin. They sang their biggest hits to Years 7, 8 and 11, before leading a series of workshops for Years 9 and 10. Students had great fun using Mandarin to create their own lyrics to the bands’ acoustics. In November, Kellett School was visited by students from HKWMA Chu Shek Lun Secondary School, a local school in Hong Kong. Year 10 Mandarin students were given the opportunity to put their language skills in both English and Chinese to use. It was an eye-opening opportunity to befriend so many other language learners, while being able to listen and speak about topics ranging from hobbies to favourite foods. The hour was split into two sections; each dedicated to activities in one group’s mother tongue. Photos were taken, emails were exchanged, friendships were developed and memories were made.
KELLETT DRAGON NEWSLETTER
ISSUE ELEVEN FEBRUARY 2015
53