Bonjour! Ni hao! Hola! Welcome!

We are glad to welcome you to Williamwood Modern Languages. Here we pride ourselves on the following for our pupils:

• Opening the doors for young people to learn languages and skills for life.
• Creating a welcoming culture, where young people can clearly see the value and importance of learning a language in 2022.
• Being a department where our lessons inspire and engage all pupils, at any stage of their learning journey.
• Challenging young people to be resilient when learning a language, and to understand that making mistakes along the way can help them become more confident in future.
• Being department which continues to have a reputation for success and celebrating achievements at all levels.

We are excited to welcome all pupils to our department and provide them with the chance to learn a language which could take them to wonderful places in the world, meeting great people.

Bonjour! By now we’re all pretty good at using Google Classroom. All of our pupils should be part of a Google Classroom page for their own class and a separate Google Classroom Resource Page for the whole year group. On the resource page you’ll find lessons, tasks and video or voice over lessons that you can use to help you keep up to date with the work of the class if you’re not in school. This is a really useful tool both for if you’re absent but also for revision purposes. If you need any codes to join the classroom pages, please ask your teacher.

Hola, Bonjour, Hello! By now you’ll have been updated about the closing of our schools. Whilst we are all really sad that about this, we’ll have some lessons and work updated on Google Classrooms. Class teachers will have told you about how to access this, however if you were absent we’d suggest you ask one of your classmates for the class code to access your Google Classroom. We will be updating it with tasks and projects which we hope you’ll enjoy, and which we hope will help you. Stay courageous and keep working hard during the coming months. From the Modern Languages Department.

Last night we had a great time at the S2 Information Evening, where we had the chance to meet and talk to lots of our S2 pupils and their parents & carers. We are so pleased that so many of you are considering taking Spanish in S3! If you haven’t made your mind up, or if you have any more questions then please come along and see us in the Modern Languages Department. We hope to see you in Spanish next year! ¡Hasta luego!

We would like to wish all the best to our senior pupils who are sitting exams in our various languages. It is a very busy time but please know that you can succeed based on all the hard work that has been put in. If you have any last minute questions about the exams, please come and see us in the Modern Languages Department.

It’s nearly Christmas, so let’s get into the festive mood with this fun rendition of the song ‘Feliz Navidad’. Hope you enjoy it!

Just a wee reminder to all those in S3 that your Reading and Listening assessments are now happening. These will include all vocabulary you have learned since the beginning of the S3 course. Take plenty time to revise for these so that you have a good chance of success.

Bonjour à tous! This week’s song of the week – Chanson de le Semaine – is from French artist Soprano. His recent song is called ‘A nos héros du quotidien’. Have a listen, and tell your teacher if you can work out what you think the title means. Enjoy!

We were pleased to be able to meet all those parents who came along to the Higher French and Spanish Information Evening. Hopefully you all gathered the relevant information, however if not here’s all the information from the event. Please feel free to get in touch with us if you have any questions.

Higher French & Spanish – info evening

Bonjour to all S4 French pupils. As you know we are now on our way to the National 5 Talking exam which will take place at the end of November. This is your final SQA exam and is not a prelim. Please let your teacher know if you have any doubts or worries. In the meantime, please find below the timeline for your National 5 course, so you can see when everything is happening. Bon courage!

N5 Timeline poster

This week’s canción de la semana – song of the week – is here and it’s from a great Spanish band called Morat. They always have a lot of fun with their music, so why not have a listen to their song ‘Cuando nadie ve’ and see what you think. Can anyone tell us what the name of the song means too?

Bonjour to all S3 pupils who are interested in the Nice trip 2020. You can go ahead and start making payments via ParentPay. It’s a great trip and we’d love you all to be a part of it. If you have any other questions please see Mrs Pierre or Mrs Boulton-Jones.

UPDATE – For all pupils going on the Malaga trip in June 2020, you can now pay your initial deposit of £150 via ParentPay. If you have any queries please get in touch with Mr Crawford or Mrs Boulton-Jones.

We had a great evening on Wednesday at the National 5 Information Evening and we were pleased to be able to help you understand more of what the National 5 French and Spanish courses are like. If you weren’t able to make it, or if you’d like to check the information we gave, feel free to have a look through the presentation below.

National 5 Information Evening

We are very excited to host the very first Modern Languages Careers Day this year. This is targeted at S4 and will take place on Tuesday 8th October. We’re really excited to host lots of different companies and universities for a day to allow you all to see how languages can help in your future career. If you’re in S5 and S6 and would like to find out more too, please let us know.

This week’s song of the week – chanson de le semaine – is a French one again, and it comes from France’s answer to Ed Sheeran. Have a watch of the song called Veronia, by Vianney and see what you think…

This week we invited all S1 parents and carers to the S1 Information Evening. It was a great success and we enjoyed meeting you all. In case you were unable to make it along, or if you wanted to review anything we told you, here is the information for all pupils studying Modern Languages in S1.

S1 info evening

Bonjour to all you S1 pupils! This is just a wee reminder to make sure you’ve completed your first Peer Assessment on page 19 of your vocabulary booklet. This lets you check how you’ve got on so far in the S1 course. If there’s anything you’re not too sure about, come and let your teacher know and they’ll be happy to help you.

Hola! This week’s song of the week is a Spanish one, and in Spanish we say ‘canción de la semana‘. We’ve gone for the song called La Gozadera by Gente de Zona. Have a watch and see if you like it! Oh yeah, you can also try the challenge of listening out for as many Spanish-speaking countries as possible that are mentioned in the song…

Ciao! Buongiorno!

Our Italian Club will be starting up next week and all are welcome to come along. You’ll have the chance to learn some Italian as well as soaking up some of the culture of Italy.

It will take place on Mondays at lunchtime in romm G15.

If you’ve any questions, come and ask Mrs Boulton-Jones.