Activity 1: World Languages

Our school is rich in diversity and we have families attending our school that are from all over the world. To recognise this diversity, we have celebrated the languages of our pupils with their families and the local community.

1) As a whole-school activity, the children learnt to say hello in the languages of pupils in their class. The children were encouraged to greet one another in their home language and to answer the register using their mother tongue. This is now part of the everyday life at school, and something the children enjoy.

2) At the main entrance of the school, we have a TV screen. All visitors to the school see this as they enter the school. We decided to celebrate our diversity with the whole school community, and therefore created a welcome video. Watch it here!

 

 

3) In Year 3 and Year 4, the children have built up their conversational French as part of the MFL curriculum. They can greet one another and are able to talk about themselves in French. We connected with our French speaking families and the children introduced themselves to them. The children were asked some questions in French by the families and with some support were able to answer these. The families were impressed by the level of French being spoken by the children. We are in the process of connecting with a French speaking school, so that our children can communicate with children of a similar age in French.

 

 

4) In Year 5 and Year 6, the children learnt Zulu, which is the native language of our partner school in South Africa. This prepared them to speak with the children. We had a Zoom call with our partner school. We were able to introduce ourselves, and likewise, they introduced themselves too. We learnt a couple more phrases in Zulu

from our friends. The children can hold a basic conversation in Zulu. It was a great experience for all!

 

 

5) As a whole school, we continued to celebrate our diversity and the languages that we speak here in our school. With the resident artist, we created a permanent display that welcomes everyone. Have a look at our creative and celebratory art piece.

 

6) For the World Faiths activity, Year 6 looked at the main stories and key people in Buddhism. They compared the story of Buddha with other religious figures. The artwork shows the story of Buddha in the middle and his journey to enlightenment. There is a comparison to Christian virtues around the outside.