Braidhurst pupils celebrated the European Festival of Languages last week and engaged in a variety of activities across many departments. Within the Modern Languages Department, S1 pupils took part in ‘Qui veut gagner de millions?’ in French, the winners being Claire Keatings and William Crosbie from class 1A who managed to reach a million pounds using only one lifeline! In addition, S1 classes made greetings cards and gift tags containing vocabulary in many different European languages. S2 pupils worked in groups and used their skills of research and teamwork to design a poster containing information eg. Food, language, geography, history about a European country of their choice and these were displayed in the Modern Languages corridor. S2 will also enjoy a French breakfast next week, as part of their ‘Food and Drink’ topic.

Physical Education teacher, Miss Joanne Lilly, organised a French boules tournament for her S2 class, which took place outside and proved the pupils to be extremely competitive! Chemistry teacher, Dr Peter Gardner, taught a National 4 Chemistry lesson partly in German and a National 5 and Higher lesson in French, much to the delight of his pupils! Ms Ruth Watson of the Biology Department devised a quiz on the topic of famous European scientists and the pupils with the most correct answers were the recipients of prizes. In the English department, Mrs Maureen Kinnaird involved her S1 class in activity whereby pupils had to define a list of common French words and phrases in general use in the English language. In Home Economics, Depute Head Teacher Mrs Anne Macdonald in liaison with Mrs Eleanor Magowan, PT Modern Languages, organised French pancake making, using a French recipe, with her S3 class and the pancakes were severed to pupils who visit the school Hub.

Elsewhere, other staff tried to promote languages by using greetings from other countries in class and by referring to European themes, eg Art and Social Subjects and ICT (through European language games online) in their lessons.

The whole school worked well as a team with the aim of extending the pupils’ knowledge of the language and culture of other countries in Europe and all pupils thoroughly enjoyed their experiences. It was an excellent example of cross-curricular learning and both staff and pupils are already working on ideas for next year’s celebrations!