E V E RY G I R L - E V E RY DAY

13th March 2020

GDST Languages Festival

Last Friday, 12 pupils from Year 7, eight pupils from Year 8, and four pupils from Year 9 went to

Sutton High School to participate in the GDST Languages Festival.

When we arrived, we were shown into the hall and given a brief introduction to the day ahead

and what activities lay in store for us.

We were shown statistics that showed how many people actually have the necessary skills to get

a job involving foreign languages and we learned about a few inspirational individuals who had

learned a new language in order to fulfil their career aspirations. Understanding how few people

have these skills highlighted to us why languages are so important. We were surprised to learn

about polyglots, people who can speak multiple languages, and to discover that 40% of the

world’s population are monolingual and 43% are bilingual.

Once we finished listening to this guest speaker, it was time to begin our activities. Year 7 took

part in a spelling bee, where they competed against other GDST schools to spell words in French,

Spanish, and German. Year 8 attended a culture quiz, in which they had to answer questions

about French, Spanish, German, and Latin festivals, food, geography, celebrities, and television

programmes (although the latter not in Latin!). Year 9 rehearsed their Latin by participating in a

comedy sketch.

Upon completing these activities, we took a quick break in the hall before proceeding to the next

set of activities. Year 7 grouped together to learn ‘Let It Go’ from Frozen in many different

languages, Year 9 continued to rehearse and then performed their Latin play, and Year 8 attended

an interesting workshop on how to create your own language by following a few simple steps

and techniques employed by linguists. After our busy morning of activities, we enjoyed a tasty

lunch in the hall.

In the afternoon, it was time for Year 7 to perform their amazing version of ‘Let It Go’. After this

performance, pupils from Year 8 – including Tara from Croydon High – spoke a few sentences in

the new language they had devised in their workshop. An awards ceremony was then held to

reward the best teams in the culture quiz and one of the Year 8 teams – comprised of Meg,

Malina, Freya, and Tara – came third place. All the pupils did extremely well and every team

should be proud of their results! Lastly, the day finished with performances from the winning

Year 9 plays.

Altogether, it was a great day and we felt

very privileged and thankful to attend.

Louise and Meg

Year 8

E V E RY G I R L - E V E RY DAY

13th March 2020