National Competitions Modern Foreign Languages

TheModern Foreign Languages had another very successful year in all areas, French, Spanish and German.This strength across all subjects within the faculty was underpinned by determined teaching and actively engaging the students in all aspects of the languages. Trips were made to France, Spain and Germany. All were both enjoyed and extremely beneficial. The attention to detail by the staff has engendered within the students across all three key stages an enthusiasm for articulation in a foreign language and hopefully a confidence to use that language in its natural environment. The acumen of the faculty has stemmed in good part from two colleagues who have now left. The benignity, charm and charisma of Denise Storrs-Fox will be much missed and her contribution to the welfare of both the learning needs and pastoral concerns of her charges will be remembered fondly. A colossal lacuna will be left by the retirement of Hanna Cooley after many years of service not only to the promotion and teaching of German but to the organisation of numerous trips to Germany. Under her auspices the German students travelled far and wide throughout Germany and even produced excellent translations of German stories for publication. The Faculty has now moved on and with a new Head of Faculty looks forward to further progression and diversification.

European Day of Languages

On Tuesday 24th and Wednesday 25th September we started off with some colourful assembly presentations, complete with photographs and entertaining accounts, by students who were involved in the German, French and Spanish trips and exchanges last term.

At lunchtime on Thursday 26th a range of activities were hosted: Karaoke singing in French, German, Spanish or Portuguese in The Chapel; performances of poems in a foreign language in the Drama room and the ‘Million Pound Drop’ with quiz questions about the French, German and Spanish speaking world. This was underpinned by a special European lunch menu with tasty temptations such as Chicken Fricassée with Haricots Verts, Spanish Omelette, Italian Lasagne and German Frankfurter with Sauerkraut. For those who were still feeling peckish, ‘Master Chef’ in the Food technology room provided the chance to learn how to cook Crêpes, Black Forest gateau and Tortilla.

A2 French: Language and Identity Course

Pendant la semaine, nous avons fait beaucoup de choses différentes. Les soirs, nous avons regardé des films qui s’appellent ‘A Bout de Souffle’, ‘Le Bonheur’ et ‘Les 400 Coups’. On a appris un peu de la Nouvelle Vague dans laquelle ces films sont classés.

De plus, on a donné un exposé sur des articles qu’on avait trouvé au sujet de ‘La Langue de l’identité’. Aussi, on a étudié de la poésie; on a lu environ deux ou trois poèmes de Baudelaire dans son anthologie ‘Les Fleurs du Mal’; en particulier, ‘Au Lecteur’ et ‘Une Charogne’. Donc on a appris à lire de la poésie et à comprendre la structure du poème tel que le fait qu’il y ait douze syllabes dans un vers pour former un alexandrine. C’était une bonne expérience pour moi et on a appris pas mal de choses!

Eyiara Olugunna 13F.

A2 French Trip

On Saturday 26th of October, a group of 10 Year 12 students, accompanied by Mlle Delage and Mr Geoghegan made their way to St. Pancras for a very early start to our weekend in Paris. Following a couple of hours on the Eurostar we arrived at Gare du Nord in Paris. Straight away we went to l’île de la cité to see the gothic style cathedral of Notre-Dame, before visiting Sainte Chapelle with its stunning stained glass windows. In the evening we went to la Place des Vosges and to Trocadero to see the Eiffel Tower at night, before a walk along the Seine passing le Pont de l’Alma with its famous statue, used as a flood warning.

On Sunday, after another early start we went to the Place de l’Etoile to see the Arc de Triomphe and to walk along the Champs Elysées. After some free time we had lunch at the world famous Chartier restaurant, where we tried traditional French dishes such as snails. Afterwards, we visited le quartier du Marais where there is the Centre Georges Pompidou, and had time to explore the streets and visit many of the unique vintage shops around. In the evening we saw a French film called ‘9 mois ferme’, a comedy about a pregnant lawyer. It was truly hilarious, perhaps even too hilarious for some.

On Monday, our final day, we visited Montmatre and le Sacré Coeur with its great views of Paris from its high dome, overlooking the Place du Tertre. We then went up la Tour Montparnasse to see the magnificent view of the whole of Paris before we had to return one final time to our youth hostel to pick up our luggage and leave. We were all sad to return from our trip, but we thoroughly enjoyed our time there.

Trip to Aachen and Paris Xmas Market

On Friday 13th December, our Y9 boys made their way to Paris by coach to visit the Christmas markets. Despite the early start, our students enjoyed their day in the capital of France purchasing regional products and souvenirs for their family and friends. Although originally from the Alsace region, Christmas markets are hugely popular in Paris in the most popular areas of the city – students enjoyed a great view of the Eiffel Tower throughout the day –the day was most certainly an unforgettable experience. The rest of the day was spent in the Army Museum where boys learnt about the First World War.

Argentinian students visit St Olave’s.

On Wednesday 11th September we had a group of Argentinian students from Colegio French visit us. They gave us a presentation on Argentina telling us about traditions and facts about Buenos Aires. Afterwards we gave them a tour of the school and they accompanied us to our lessons. During lunch time the girls sat and discussed their life in Argentina asking us many questions and the boys played football against the year 7-9 St. Olave’s boys. They were an extremely friendly group of people that we all enjoyed getting to know, all the while practising our Spanish skills.

Miércoles pasado, algunos alumnos del colegio French visitaron St. Olave’s

Nos dieron una presentación sobre las tradiciones de Argentina y hablaron de Buenos Aires. Después vinieron a nuestras clases (matemáticas y biología por ejemplo). Durante la comida, las chicas hablaron de su vida en

Argentina y nos preguntaron sobre muchas cosas. Por otra parte los chicos jugaron al fútbol contra los chicos de St. Olave’s. Era gente amable, y disfrutamos conocerlos mientras tuvimos la oportunidad de practicar nuestras habilidades en español.

Y7 French Day at the Institut Français

In a rewarding day at the French Institute in South Kensington, Year 7 students launched into a variety of workshops to practise speaking in the target language. Lunch was accompanied by a viennoiserie (pains au chocolat et croissants) and du jus d’orange, before a French film called “Les Enfants de Timpelbach”, challenged their language skills even further.

Languages Film Club

MFL Prefects and Languages Ambassadors launched this new Club, starting with screenings of El Laberinto del Fauno (Spanish), Krabat (German) and La Haine (French), to quench the cultural thirst!

Europa Centre

The Europa Centre in Havering enabled Year 7 boys to use their foreign language intensively for 2 hours, finding information about an imaginary missing person for a prize, and engaging in shopping conversations with native Spanish speakers to buy real food and drink in the café.

French Day at St Paul’s Cray Primary School

The French Day at Saint Paul’s Cray saw Year 13 students running a variety of activities, games and quizzes with Primary pupils, as well as a visit to the French café and a look at some French web-sites

Careers in Languages Day

Jeevan Ravindran (11L) made the most of an exceptional outing at the Languages Day at Westminster University. Talks showed how interesting careers existed in translation, subtitling and conference interpreting, and that there were job prospects in the EU, incorporating travel and a great deal of freedom. By the end of a taster session in Chinese he knew how to say, “Mother is scolding the horse!” and was inspired by the importance of languages in mutual understanding and breaking down barriers.

Year 8 Boulogne trip

Despite having to wake up early to meet an early Channel tunnel crossing, as year 8 students arrived in school at 5.30am we were all talking about what we would be doing in Boulogne. After the journey from the school to Folkestone, across the Channel then on to Boulogne, we stopped just outside the city walls at the top of the town. After walking along the ramparts and looking at the views, we then visited a grand basilica-style church with an impressive dome. This was followed by a sojourn to the market and we were allowed to go wherever we wanted within the market. Although some struggled to use the correct grammar and vocabulary, we had a lot of fun watching nervous people hesitating to buy and then ending up buying 2kg of potatoes! After the market, we took a walk down to the port and along to the beach where we had lunch. After lunch we went to the sea-life centre where we had a chance to admire the sharks, tropical fish and other creatures before watching the sea-lion display with their impressive jumps and tricks. After a brief visit to the shop we went out to find the rain had really set in, so beach games were abandoned in favour of a visit to the large shopping centre of Cité Europe, where we could spend our final euros. After a long, tiring but fun day, we had the long coach journey back to school. Overall, everyone found it to be a great and fun experience.

Trip to Normandy

En juillet, nous sommes allés en France en Normandie pour une semaine et nous avons fait beaucoup de choses. Par exemple nous avons visité le Mont Saint Michel (c’était tellement touristique!), un marché traditionnel et une chèvrerie. Aussi nous avons fait beaucoup d’activités comme faire du canoë ou faire du char à voile. Nous sommes resté à ‘La Grande Ferme’ et nous y avons passé notre temps libre (ça nous a plu, nous avons pu jouer au foot, au volley ou au ping-pong) et nous avons visité ‘Carrefour’ un hypermarché Français. Dans l’ensemble, c’était une semaine fantastique!

In July, we went to Normandy for a week. We did lots of things there, for example we went to Mont Saint Michel, which was very touristy as well as visiting a traditional French market and a goat farm. We also did many activities such as kayaking and sand yachting. We stayed at ‘La Grande Ferme’ and spent our free time there (we could play football, volleyball and table tennis, we loved it) and we visited ‘Carrefour’ a French Hypermarket. All in all it was a fantastic week!

Justin Reed 11J

GermAn

German Exchanges

On the Saturday, 5th July, six Year 10 students set off with Frau Cooley on the return leg of the Starnberg exchange. We were looking forward to seeing our friends again who had spent a week here in May/June. It turned out to be as splendid as we had hoped. We spent two days in Munich, seeing the historic centre, the Olympic Park, the university and the ‘Englische Garten’ and had a ‘Grand Tour’ of the BMW world, assembly plant and museum. We thoroughly enjoyed our two days in the Alps, one walking through an amazing ravine cut by a river, the other to the fairytale castle ‘Neuschwanstein’. The morning at school felt quite odd, as most students and many teachers wore jeans, and the boat trip round Lake Starnberg was wonderfully relaxing. It was quite surprising how much free time we had with our German partners in spite of the full programme during the day. We thoroughly enjoyed the times out with them and even the ‘food-faddies’ among us found German fare rather better than feared! The Germans’ hospitality and friendliness was thoroughly appreciated and we have deepened our existing friendships and forged new ones. The week passed far too quickly.

Year 10 Rhineland Trip

During Activity Week 2 28 year 10 students enjoyed a week in a hotel on the banks of the beautiful river Rhine. They enjoyed a boat trip along the river, a cable car ride up to some spectacular views, a castle visit, swimming, bowling and, of course, some shopping. The highlight for most was the fun day spent at Phantasialand, a theme park with plenty of amazing rides to keep them all busy. A good week was had by all and thanks to Mrs Latcham, Mrs Johnson and Mr Espejo for accompanying the trip. to the trip, as our flight was delayed by 2 ½ hours and we therefore missed the connecting train at Frankfurt airport. The amazing generosity and hospitality of the German host parents kicked in straight away, as two cars raced up the autobahn to rescue us!

Trip to Aachen

At 21:00 on Thursday, 12th December, a group of 49 students and 4 staff, Mrs Latcham, Mrs Johnson, Mr Henley and Frau Cooley, set off for Aachen, to see the town, cathedral and treasury and, of course, the Christmas market. The coach was filled to the last seat and the students thoroughly enjoyed the long drive, or rather the opportunity to chat to each other most of the night on the way there. Breakfast in the 17th century buildings of the ‘Alt Aachener Kaffeestuben’ was much appreciated and we then went off to browse around the main shopping area with its Christmas decorations. The displays of the many bakeries were especially admired.

Punctually, we all met for the guided tours round the cathedral and treasury, with many impressive items dating back to ‘Karl der Große’ (Charlemagne). The students then had lunch, met for group checks afterwards and then did the much anticipated Christmas shopping on the Christmas market.

Everyone had a great time and enjoyed the magical atmosphere of the market with its many stalls offering, for example, crafts, sausages and special bakes such as the Aachener Printen.

The behaviour of the students was exemplary throughout; their punctuality for all meetings was perfect. They were a real joy to take.

Heidelberg Exchange

On Saturday, 15th February, seven 6th form German students, accompanied by Mrs Cooley and Mr Henley, set off for a week in Heidelberg. We had a poor start

We had a superb week, sightseeing, eating, celebrating and speaking a lot of German, making the best of the dry weather and the wonderful openness of our hosts, parents, teachers and students alike. We visited Heidelberg Castle with the world’s largest wine barrel and the apothecary museum, the Carcer (student prison!), the Friedrich Ebert–house, a memorable Dix/ Beckmann art exhibition and the technological museum in Mannheim with many hand-on exhibits, which were both practically and intellectually challenging and most enjoyable. In Speyer we saw the world’s largest Romanesque cathedral (11th century) and Roman and medieval remains; in Frankfurt we had a guided tour through the historic quarter, appreciated the architecture and the many famous paintings and exhibits of the ‘Kunstgalerie Städel’, and thoroughly relaxed in the gemütliche ‘Eppelwoikneip’ (warm, comfortable apple wine restaurant) Wagner.

In the evenings, many of the group met and/or went out together, the safer and more relaxed atmosphere of the environs of Heidelberg allowing the teachers some relatively worry-free time!

Many parents joined us on Saturday evening, when all German and English students and teachers got together for a meal, and we had a wonderfully harmonious, if a little sad time together, as we had to return on Sunday.

The exchange was a great success; we made many friends and speak much better and more fluent German. We are all looking forward to the return visit of our German exchange partners and friends from 26th April to 3rd May.

SpAniSh

Spanish Trip to Malaga

During the February half-term Year 13 students visited Andalucía in southern Spain, with ample time to sample the tapas bars and practise speaking Spanish. Based in the historic port of Málaga they visited the Moorish castle, La Alcazaba, and the Museo Carmen Thyssen which specialises in Spanish art. A trip to the ancient city of Ronda included stunning views of the famous bridge and gorge, whilst a day in Marbella highlighted the charm and Spanish traditions of the old town.

Year 8 Spanish Experience 2014

The Spanish department organised an intensive Spanish experience Year 8 during Activity Week 1. On Wednesday

21st May, students embarked on a carousel of enrichment activities giving the opportunity to experience different aspects of life in the Spanish speaking world. From Flamenco in session one, cooking “Tapas” dishes in session two, and watching a newly released film from Argentina concerning their favourite sport, football, this day offered the full Spanish experience.

Murcia 2014

On Monday 14th July, a group of very tired boys met under the chapel at 2.30am. It was dark, and many had not slept after watching the World Cup Final match the previous evening. This made for a lovely quiet journey! We arrived on time, but sadly had to wait ages for our luggage. However, as soon as we got to our accommodation, the Centro de Alto Rendimiento in Los Alcácares, it was time to change into shorts and flipflops and get down to the beach. The local beach was just outside the back door of the centre, and played an important part in our trip. We enjoyed many competitions, including a closely fought world cup of our own, which was won by Iran. We also enjoyed visits to historic Cartagena and the wildlife sanctuary Las Salinas, as well as to the local funfair and market. We had a watersports session in which we sailed, windsurfed and paddle surfed. We had useful lessons with our local guide, Carolina, and completed quizzes and treasure hunts in the local area in Spanish. The highlight for many was the Brazilian samba drumming workshop one evening – we were really loud but the neighbours clapped and our drum teachers were really impressed. We had the now traditional mud bathing experience, and we enjoyed a concert from a Cuban salsa band which gave us the chance to show off our dancing skills to the other students staying at the centre. We used lots of Spanish talking to them and made friends. The food and accommodation in the centre, which was originally built for the Barcelona Olympics, was excellent. Several students in the group swam for the first time and overcame all sorts of fears – well done to them! We all came back to school completely exhausted but knowing we had had a really good time and learned a great deal.