It has been a busy term here in the languages department. A huge well done to Year 11 who have worked hard in preparing for their speaking exams ready for the second week back after the Easter holidays. All our students have been preparing their chosen theme for the conversation, writing their presentations and practising some sample questions in advance. Remember that Mrs Gill’s class have a speaking masterclass on Thursday 13th April 10am – 12pm in room 26.
Year 7 have been busy in German learning about pets and families and are now learning about free time and sports and Year 8 have been learning about TV, films and reading. Year 9 have been learning about German music, bands and festivals and we even sampled some German music such as Rammstein, Helene Fischer and Namika who was the most popular…actually, we really liked ‘Ein Gummibär’! Year 10 have been busy learning about free time activities and festivals in Germany and have found out about how much our German friends like to party!
Our year 7 German Spelling Bees have been working hard towards their target of the regional final, which will take place this year at the University of Liverpool (date TBC). They have learnt 200 pieces of vocabulary so far and are able to spell these accurately using their German alphabet and phonics. The girls have been getting very competitive but have also been super supportive of each other. They help each other with memory hooks to remember vocabulary and correct phonics. You’re doing us proud, girls! Keep your fingers crossed and watch this space for exciting news.
Routes into Languages Year 8 & 9 German Translation Bee
Our year 8 and 9 Translation Bee club continues to prove popular, and the girls are beginning to show their competitive sides! We have been building our confidence and knowledge of the 64 words needed to complete the Translation Bee and have successfully applied this to the Stage 1 and Stage 2 present and future tense sentences.
Our next stage is Stage 3 where we will use the words that we have been practising on Quizlet and Blooket to form past tense sentences. This academic year, both year 8 and 9 have covered the past tense and how we form it in German. Mrs Ingram is looking forward to seeing their success with this. Good luck, girls!
Our ongoing projects are going from strength to strength with our partner school in Landstuhl in Germany. We have just received some letters back and are very excited to write some more and send them some Easter cards. We will also let them know what we have been doing this term. Hopefully we will get to do some video calls with the school next term.
Film club for both French and German has continued to be really busy. Our German group are now on to Ostwind 3, having watched the first two and we are hooked on the adventures of Ostwind and Meike. The exciting news is that there are still 2 more films in this series to watch, so we will hopefully get to see them after Easter and continue with our popcorn parties.
Did you know Pancake Day is celebrated on a different day in France? “La Chandeleur” is celebrated every year in France and in other European countries on February 2nd. “Mardi Gras” (Shrove Tuesday) is also celebrated when they enjoy more pancakes (or doughnuts, apple fritters, waffles). In class, we watched a short video of how Carnival is celebrated in Nice which we all thought was very impressive.
Last month, Year 9 French had the opportunity to make pancakes after school in the food tech room. This year, the MFL department invested in pancake pans and students had to follow a recipe in French. I’m not sure whether it was the new pans or the students’ skills, but some great pancake flipping was spotted! A big “thank you” to Miss Scott for helping us out.
“As a student learning French at PGHS, I can confirm that learning French has so far been an amazing journey.” Vritika S
“I have been doing French for only about half a year, but I have learnt so much new vocabulary which I hope will be practical for me in the future. I always look forward to my French lessons because I know that they will be lively and interactive. I recognise that there will always be someone there to help me if I struggle, whether that is my teacher or my peers. At the moment, we are learning about school uniform and how to tell the time, it is tricky but extremely rewarding when you understand how to speak and translate sentences.” Lily S
“In PGHS French classes, we receive and send pen pal letters. We send the letters written in mostly French, but with some English questions as well to help the French students who will receive our letters get more of an understanding of our language. My class has received letters describing themselves in different ways. The French students, like us, also give us questions in French to help give us an understanding of more questions.” Millie-May L
Year 11 took on the challenge this half term of our French and German speaking mocks. We are super proud of them all as it was their first experience of a formal speaking exam. We believe this will set them up for a great experience in April when they will complete their final exam that is worth 25% of their overall French and German grade. All our students gave their best, tackled the role play, photo card and conversation with confidence and all had lovely pronunciation and intonation throughout. Well done to everyone, the MFL team are proud of you!
The German Spelling Bee is a national competition that brings together Year 7 pupils across the country to compete in their German spellings. Students must try to spell as many words in German in one minute and move through the different rounds. Congratulations to our Stage One German Spelling Bee winners! These girls have worked tirelessly to learn all 50 words for Stage One and performed incredibly in their individual Stage One final. Each student had to reply with the German translation of the English word given and then spell it out using their German alphabet. They each did as many as they could within one minute – I think you can agree that’s very impressive!
These students now move on to Stage Two where they will learn an additional 100 words for the school’s final. The winners of this will be moving on to the regional final in Manchester. We cannot wait to head to this competition and show everyone how well we are doing!
What a busy first term it has been here in the MFL department! As the term draws to a close, I would like to thank all of our students for working so hard in their French and German lessons and giving their all.
Year 7 have worked on learning how to introduce themselves. Year 8 Germanists have learned how to describe their past holidays and learned our new favourite word ‘Kakerlaken’. Year 8 French students have learned how to introduce themselves, give personal information and opinions and Year 9 pupils have also been working hard and have produced some lovely letters and cards to send over to France and Germany.
A huge well done to Year 11 for working through a really busy term and their mock exams. They are pushing towards their goals next year and taking on the new challenges as they prepare for the mock speaking exams in January. A big cheer for our Year 10 students embarking on their first term of GCSE French and German and producing some outstanding results in their recent Module 1 assessments, alongside a brilliant attitude. Well done all!
Frau Gill
Berlin Wall and German Reunification
As part of our cultural enrichment this term, our language students have learned all about the Berlin Wall, it’s fall and subsequent reunification of Germany. To coincide with the public celebrations in Germany, we created our very own Berlin Wall in Mrs Gill’s room (room 26). It takes pride of place there and I think you’ll agree that it looks amazing!
Christmas Card Competition Launch
Our annual MFL Christmas card competition has been launched with full gusto! Students have been invited to create a Christmas card in either French, German or any other language that they know or speak. We have already received some outstanding entries. These will be judged, and prizes will be delivered to the winners and runners-up in each year group during the last week of term. Best of luck to all entrants!
Year 7 First Term in German
Mrs Gill’s class have been busy this half term learning all about pets and animals and learning how to describe them in German. We have spent one lesson per week on the computers using Quizlet and Blooket to practise all of our vocabulary. 7Ge1 wrote some information about their German lessons so far to share with everyone:
Haalah N
In German, we have been learning how to talk about ourselves, such as our age, name, etc.
On Tuesdays, we play games; which everyone loves and is our favorite day in the week! Frau Gill makes learning German so easy and fun and we learn lots.
Hannah B
German is fun at PGHS. We play games and bingo, yet we are memorising the words and meanings. We have done an assessment recently and everyone has done well. The topics we were studying were greetings, our belongings, how to describe ourselves and other people and how to form a simple conversation. Our current topic is animals, pets and family. We are in a German room for one day of the week and are in a computing room for the other day. We use the computers to do things like Quizlet and Blooket, which makes us think on the spot and learn the words in an exciting way. We also made a German to English poster to send to German school children.
Bella N
I’ve really enjoyed German and I think it has helped me feel more confident in speaking different languages. I feel I have been supported and pushed to the best of my ability but I don’t feel under pressure to speak if I don’t want to. I also feel there are lots of good websites and apps that we use that have helped and I can’t wait to carry on learning German.
Nikolaustag
This Tuesday, 6th December marks der Nikolaustag for many families across German speaking countries. On the eve of Nikolaustag, children of all ages leave a special boot outside their front door in the hopes that, if they’ve been good enough, Nikolaus will fill it with all kinds of sweet treats and toys. Here is a video that our KS3 classes will be watching this week, explaining all about the traditional story of Nikolaustag:
7G1 have been lucky enough to enjoy their first ever Japanese lesson this week with our trainee teacher Miss Parnell. 7G1 were taught basic introductions, learning how to say hello, how are you and say how they are. They also learnt lots about the Japanese culture. It was a brilliant lesson that the pupils really enjoyed and they were able to find out so much more information about Japan.
