Senior Phase – Higher Spanish Prelim – Examinations February 2016

Although the pupils have already been personally informed of this information, here are the dates of the Higer Spanish Prelim exams:

Monday 1 February – Periods 5 & 6 – Spanish: Higher (Reading & Directed Writing)

Tuesday 2 February – Periods 5 & 6 – Spanish: Higher (Reading & Directed Writing)

Thursday 4 February – Periods 5 & 6 – Spanish: Higher (Listening & Short Writing)

Friday 5 February – Periods 3 & 4 – Spanish: Higher (Listening & Short Writing)

S4 – National 5 Spanish – Prelim Examinations January 2016

Although the pupils have already been personally informed of this information, here are the dates of the National 5 Spanish Prelim exams:

Monday 18 January – Period 6 – Spanish: Reading (Mrs Dolan/ Ms Prieto / Ms Carreño)

Tuesday 19 January – Period 5 – Spanish: Reading (Mrs Fagan)

Wednesday 20 January – Period 4 – Spanish: Reading (Mrs Dolan/ Ms Prieto / Ms Carreño)

Wednesday 20 January – Period 5 – Spanish Reading (Mrs Fagan)

Thursday 21 January – Period 4 – Spanish: Writing (Mrs Fagan)

Thursday 21 January – Period 6 – Spanish: Writing (Mrs Dolan / Ms Prieto / Ms Carreño)

Friday 22 January – Period 1 – Spanish: Listening (Mrs Dolan / Ms Prieto / Ms Carreño)

Friday 22 January – Period 4 – Spanish: Listening (Mrs Fagan)

‘Pay for foreign exchange trips rather than a week in Majorca,’ top headteacher tells parents | News

11 January 2016 (TES)

Parents should consider sending their child on a school foreign exchange rather than spending money on a week in Majorca, a headteacher has suggested.

Young people are likely to learn more on a cultural break in a city such as Madrid or Barcelona than they are sitting on a beach, according to Caroline Jordan, headmistress of Headington School in Oxford and the new president of the Girls’ Schools Association.

Setting up a foreign exchange for students did not have to be expensive, Ms Jordan said.

“It’s trying to convince the parents that that’s good use of their finances as opposed to a foreign holiday to Majorca, where they may well be in a Spanish environment but they’re less likely to be experiencing Spanish as they would be if they were in somewhere like Madrid or Barcelona on exchange,” she said.

“Exchange is very important and we know that languages is a real area of concern in this country. The government is doing quite a lot about this by trying to encourage all children to take a language through the English Baccalaureate.”

Read more… .

CCA: Spanish and Latin American Short Film Night

A powerful curated selection of short films, all with English subtitles, as well as networking breaks for the enjoyment of both the Ibero-American community and cinema lovers alike.

CinemaAttic’s focus this month is on the consequences of overlooking. Fear in its broadest sense tends to allow people in more or less explicit ways to hide feelings and secrets. The resulting frustration gives us a cocktail of stories moving from thrills to laughter. Argentina, Mexico and Colombia contribute to this winter programme, as well as the work of some of great masters like the Alenda Brothers, Toni Bestard and Eduardo Chapero-Jackson, giving you nothing but the best short film selections coming from Spanish and Lusophone countries.

Follow the link to see the original websiteCCA.

Our Films:Our Europe > SCILT

The Scottish European Educational Trust has run for some years a competition about Europe and how being a European citizen affects the young Scottish people.

Four of our S3 students – Louise McCann, Holly McIntyre, Jennifer Wardale and Kelsey Wilson – signed up and have been working into their idea, storyboard and script for a short film about the mentioned topic.

Their effort and work has had its outcomes and in Cardinal Newman, and specially from the Modern Languages Department, we want to congratulate them and celebrate their success so far.

Louise, Holly, Jennifer and Kelsey must be very proud of themselves and we hope that they do well in the next phase too.

Our Films:Our Europe > SCILT.

5 techniques to speak any language

Have you ever seen any of the TED Talks?

TED is a nonprofit devoted to spreading ideas, usually in the form of short, powerful talks (18 minutes or less). TED began in 1984 […] and today covers almost all topics — from science to business to global issues — in more than 100 languages. Meanwhile, independently run TEDx events help share ideas in communities around the world. [https://www.ted.com/about/our-organization]

The topics of the videos vary and one may not be interested in many of them. If you wish to know or see more about them, visit the TED website

We leave just now this enthusiastic speaker called Sid Efromovich, who speaks 7 languages and shares here his techniques for learning to speak any language.

Summary of Sid Efromovich’s TECHNIQUES TO SPEAK A NEW LANGUAGE

  • MAKE MISTAKES – You are afraid to speak in the foreign language because you don´t feel confident in it. But you need to dare to speak and make mistakes!
  • SCRAP THE FOREIGN ALPHABET – escape from your own alphabet, and try to find ways to grasp the foreign language sounds.
  • FIND A STICKLER – Someone who will help you to find the errors and make them right.
  • SOLO CONVERSATIONS – speak to yourself in the foreign language, so you will have to think how to produce different parts of a conversation.
  • BUDDY FORMULA – find a friend or someone who shares the need and interest of practising the target foreign language and practise, practise, practise!