The Modern Languages Department recently celebrated the European Day of Languages with pupils taking part in a variety of activities as part of their celebrations.

S1 pupils engaged in an inter-house ‘Who Want to Be a Millionaire?’ competition in French, with the winners being Morven House who reached a million euros! S1 also made a wall mural of a sea of hands, each depicting a country with words of its language adorning the fingers.  In addition, they completed a quiz about famous European scientists made up by Biology teacher, Miss Watson.

S2 worked in pairs to create a poster of a European country of their choice They used iPads to research geographical, historical, cultural and culinary facts about the country, as well as some of the language. S3 and S4 pupils had great fun in the Home Economics Department making French pancakes according to a French recipe, and these tasted ‘delicieux’.

Other cross-curricular activities included an S2 French boules championship carried out in the PE Department by Mr Egan; an introduction to French mime delivered by Mrs Reilly in the Drama department; and Mrs Kinnaird of the English department organised a ’French words used in the English language’ group activity with her S1 class and excellent posters made by the pupils were displayed in the corridors.

In addition, the very brave Dr Gardner delivered a lesson in French to his National 5 Chemistry class and PT Science, Mr Campbell, taught a Biology lesson in French to his Higher class. Mrs Ballantyne incorporated German words and phrases into her teaching of the ‘World War 1’ topic with S2 and Mrs Hunter set her pupils a set of Maths challenges. They also played a board game involving translating sums from French to English.

In the IT Department, pupils played the online game ‘Kahoot’ in French and showed themselves to be extremely engaged, enthusiastic and competitive! Under the guidance of Miss Lennox, pupils with English as their second language produced guides to their country of birth and their mother tongue.

Pupils who attend the Hub played French and German games organised by Mrs Currie and were treated to a French breakfast! All pupils, as well as members of staff, across many curricular areas thoroughly enjoyed their experiences and have improved their knowledge of French, German and hopefully other languages in the process!