An MFL Spring Term filled with celebrations, theatre and inspirational linguists

Alongside our fantastic Chinese New Year celebrations and MFL Society Dinner in February, our Student Heads of Languages (Tabi, Lottie and Addy) have had a busy and fruitful time working alongside our LIV and MIV on a range of creative and cultural activities as part of ‘MFL Club’. The pupils have created beautiful sand art flowers to celebrate the Festival of Holi, made delicious French crêpes to a traditional recipe, and learned lots of vocabulary related to Easter in Spain. Our Hispanists in UIV to UV have also enjoyed making tasty ‘churros’ for the first time in their Spanish lessons.

On Friday 6 March our LIV came together with St Margaret’s Year 6 pupils to learn about Italian Carnevale and to work collaboratively in creating some attractive and colourful decorations based on the theme of the traditional Venetian masks. It was lovely to share in a creative and cultural project across these two year groups who worked enthusiastically together and enjoyed learning the colours in Italian as well as about the key ‘characters’ from Carnevale including ‘Arlecchino’ and ‘Pantalone’!

Later in March, we were pleased to welcome the Onatti Theatre Company to St Mary’s again where actors performed hugely engaging and interactive plays entirely in Spanish and German. The Spanish play, Un ensayo deastroso, centred around a rehearsal of Romeo y Julieta which goes wrong with hilarious results.

Das Gruselhaus, the German play, followed the experiences of two best friends who take refuge from a storm in an abandoned house. Their fears intensify when a police officer informs them that an escaped prisoner is nearby, leaving them alone to determine whether the house is truly haunted. It was wonderful to see our pupils so engaged and inspired, as well as enjoying experiencing the language in action on stage.

We were lucky to welcome alumna Lydia Metaxa (2022 Leaver) who is in her final year at Oxford studying French and German and Young Goethe Ambassador, Sam Dickens, who gave up their time to talk and take questions about their experiences of learning German to a higher level and where they hope their studies will take them in the future.

Mrs Leonie Moylan, and Mrs Melanie Davies
Head of MFL, and Head of German