Modern Languages Newsletter—Easter 2012 Welcome to the Easter newsletter and we hope you will enjoy this brief array of articles, highlighting some of the many initiatives taking place across schools, from primary to the senior stages, including:

 China Week at Bannerman High  Glasgow Language baccalaureate presentations  Dalmarnock Primary’s Comenius visit to Ravenna, Italy  French Language events at   St Vincent’s Autism Unit  S2 Italian for Work / web design in Celtic Learning Centre  Notices, including; CCeD Italian course at Strath- clyde University, French immersion courses for pri- mary and secondary and congratulations.

We hope that you have a relaxed and peaceful break away from the pressures of folios, orals, IPs, etc.

As usual, we hope you will enjoy the variety and quality of activities offered throughout our city schools and please send us details of your own interesting events and pro- jects. Click on the blue hyperlinks throughout the newsletter for easy navigation!

Page 1 Modern Languages Newsletter—Easter 2012 China in the Curriculum at To celebrate Chinese New Year this year, pupils focused on China and its culture in a range of subjects across the curriculum. This event was known as China Week as it lasted from Monday 23rd till Friday 27th January 2012.

In addition there were some exciting special events. On Saturday 21st January (from 12.30pm), approximately 40 S4 pupils from the Intermediate 2 Fashion and Textile class organised and took part in a fashion show at the Millennium Hotel, after a Chi- nese Buffet and Storytelling with Fong Liu and Harmony Ensemble. For the fashion show, the school was fortunate to acquire funding from the Confucius Project, allow- ing us to purchase a wide array of silks that originated and were manufactured in China. The pupils designed and created a selection of beautiful outfits showcased at this event.

On Tuesday 24th January, the celebrated Executive Chef ‗Chew Kian Seng‘ and his team from Millennium‘s Hotel Equatorial Shanghai visited the school to demonstrate to pupils and staff how to create an exciting selection of Chinese dishes. The above two events tied in with the whole range of activities the Millennium Hotel ran for Chi- nese New Year.

In school S3 pupils were involved in writing Palm of the Hand stories in English; de- signing and making lanterns, drawing Chinese themed still lives and creating de- signs for dinner plates for a Chinese restaurant in Art; making bookmarks and cards in Business Studies; investigating Chinese technologies in Computing to name a few of the curricular activities they participated in.

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Page 2 Modern Languages Newsletter—Easter 2012

The climax of the week was a China in the Curriculum Showcase and exhibition on Thursday afternoon. The audience consisted of pupils from S1 and the Showcase was compered by two S6 pupils. The eclectic programme involved S3 Drama; Music students performed an excerpt from Peking Opera, including some fabulous drum- ming and a musical item; English was represented through the Palm of the Hand stories written in S3 English classes; some S6 pupils studying beginners‘ Mandarin delivered presentations in Mandarin; pupils from S3 P.E Studies gave a demonstra- tion of the Ribbon dance and the finale was a demonstration of JianXi or ―Chinese shuttlecock‖ by some members of the S3 football team.

All of these activities were embraced enthusiastically by staff and pupils, generating real enthusiasm, enjoyment and interest across the year group and the school.

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Page 3 Modern Languages Newsletter—Easter 2012 Language Baccalaureate projects

Jacob Hay (Cleveden Secondary) Culinary Clichés - breaking down stereotypes surrounding French and Scot- tish Cuisines

Jacob delivered a very comprehensive exposé on some of the common misconcep- tions about food at home and in France, basing his evidence on live data. He con- ducted surveys and interviews with students, family and friends in Glasgow and with his French counterparts (in French) during a recent visit to Strasbourg.

Not surprisingly, his Scottish respondents thought French people eat mainly frogs legs and snails, whereas his French participants think we only eat haggis.

Jacob gathered together some popular Scottish and French recipes, including cock- a-leekie soup, cranachan, tarte flambée and cassoulet, and has stored them in a website at culinary clichés. All items are in both French and English and a brief visit should dispel some of the myths attached to our respective cuisines.

Salli Matheson (S6) provided linguistic and technical support and Eilidh Reid (Notre Dame High) took the photographs.

After a short break for refreshments, Jacob answered questions.

More IPs

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Page 4 Modern Languages Newsletter—Easter 2012

Kate Guariento () A comparative study of the support offered to immigrant children in Glasgow and Udine (Italy) Kate compared 2 primaries (Annette Street & ME Alberti) during her research, noting, among many other things, that the Glasgow school benefits from 3 hours support per week, whereas the Italian counterpart has only 40 hours support per year. Annette Street also enjoys much better resources. Kate communicated with the Italian school via email, allowing her to practise the formal Lei form in an authentic context. She also practised her oral skills via numerous tele- phone calls.

Kim Middleton (Shawlands Academy) The attitudes towards the acquisition of a second language in Glasgow and Mexico City Kim conducted surveys, interviews and published statistics from a sample of 40 respondents to support her research which also included a school from the independent sector. Her findings revealed that students in Glasgow schools view the study of a second language as another qualification rather than a life skill.

Whereas, for her respondents from Mexico City:  Foreign languages are frequently delivered via immersion - i.e. a his- tory lesson may be taught in Eng- lish  100% of the boys surveyed felt it was important to study a foreign language (it is notoriously difficult for our schools to attract adolescent boys to language courses)  Mexican students start their foreign language studies early - between 2 and 4 years of age.

However, both Glasgow and Mexican students agreed that learning a second lan- guage was important for success in the global market place.

Both Kate and Kim answered questions following their presentations.

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Page 5 Modern Languages Newsletter—Easter 2012

Dalmarnock Primary School are currently involved in their second Comen- ius project called U–knighted by knowledge and are linked with schools in Italy, Poland, Spain and Turkey. Consequently, on 27th February, a group of staff (Linda McShane, Louise McCreadie, Vicky Moffat and Frances Taylor) travelled to Ravenna in Italy for a 5 day visit. Paul Middleton (ML Support & Development Team) accompanied the group, hoping to set up links for our Italian students.

The host school—Istituto Comprensivo San Biagio—oversees a small learning commu- nity incorporating three primaries and one middle school. The visitors observed lessons in different stages of each schools and took part in question and answer sessions with some of the older children who were keen to speak and improve their English language skills.

The main event during this trip was the open- ing of the art exhibition. All schools involved had sent art work to Ravenna for this exhibi- tion. The theme was all things medieval. The work produced by the children was stunning.

The group visited Ferrara, the bicycle town of the north, and saw many of Ravenna‘s famous beauti- ful mosaics .

The next visit will take place at the end of May 2012 when the Spanish school in Return to list of features Oviedo will be the hosts.

Page 6 Modern Languages Newsletter—Easter 2012

The beginning of March was an exciting week for all at John Paul Academy.

Firstly, a group of fifteen Higher Spanish can- didates were visited by a team from the Span- ish Consulate in Edinburgh. The visitors, led by Señor Joaquin Moreno, education adviser to the consulate, certainly put our students through their paces in a series of workshops designed to improve their speaking skills. They even had to come up with the plot for a short film based on only a couple of props – a mous- tache and an umbrella, a glass and a hat and an eye-patch and a hippy! All the fifth and sixth years had a wonderful, but very strenu- ous morning and agreed that they would love to repeat this experience. Well done to them for participating so fully and a huge thank you to our visitors! On Thursday and Friday of the same week we had a visit from ‗Théâtre Sans Frontières’ who performed a play in French for schools from all over Glasgow, as well as our own second years. The play ‗La Chanson du Re- tour‘ tells the story of a girl called Léa who is swallowed up by a computer game and must find a way to return home. It was a mixture of song, dance and movement. There was much sing- ing and dancing in preparation for this visit and some of our S2 are now plan- ning to audition for the French version of ‗The X Factor‘! One of them was heard to say that the show was ‗pure brilliant‘. Not bad, eh? The actors were cer- tainly very impressed with their participation in the show. Once again, well done to all!

PS Can you spot our extra special visitors in this photo?

Click to see St. Vincent‘s AU report on their visit to this event and other French items.

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Page 7 Modern Languages Newsletter—Easter 2012

La Chanson du Retour

With great excitement 11 pupils from St. Vincent‘s Autism Unit, myself and three other adults, boarded the bus for John Paul Academy to be treated to ‗La Chanson du Retour‘. We had learned about the ‗plot‘ and practised all the songs; in particular the ones specified in the pack we received us prior to the big day. The pack was excellent. A great deal of thought had obviously gone into its preparation and I felt pre- pared and confident to teach the children some of the language that was new to me.

The pupils sat enthralled throughout the whole performance. At one point one of the cast asked one of our pupils to come on to the ‗stage‘ to join in the world of colour. To my amazement, he willingly accepted and absolutely loved it! The photographs show just how much the chil- dren enjoyed the experience; the looks on their faces were priceless. They engaged in the songs, often joining in the clapping and pointing to particular parts that interested them. We re- ceived a lovely welcome from John Paul Acad- emy and would wish to thank them for hosting this wonderful event.

The following week in school the pupils com- pleted an evaluation sheet. Their responses were amazing. In response to ―What words would you use to describe your experience?‖ We had words like ―amazing, colourful, epic, fantastic, clever, hilarious, excellent‖. Ten of the pupils gave the experience 10/10. Their favour- ite parts were ―the music, Lea and Blue‖. Two pupils commented that, even though they did not understand all the French, they were able to follow the story because of the ―acting and how well the emotions were portrayed‖ (their own words!) At a recent assembly, a younger class performed ‗Saute Secoue‘, one of the songs from the play. They had great fun and there were huge smiles all round.

A wonderful experience for all of us. More please!!

Merci beaucoup !! Return to list of features

Page 8 Modern Languages Newsletter—Easter 2012 Italian for Work / Dreamweaver A group of S2 boys and girls from St. Mungo‘s Academy recently completed an ‗Italian for Work‘ unit at Celtic Learning Centre. They produced original websites in Italian using Dreamweaver. This initiative was another successful interdisciplinary partnership between , Stow College and Celtic Learning Centre. The impressive sites can be viewed at: http://www.fawndoo.com/italianforwork/

Notices Resources / CPD Congratulations to Maryse Payen-Roy in the team who recently achieved Chartered Teacher status through her research into the teaching and learning of Modern Lan- guages in the Early Years stages. Maryse has been instrumental in setting up the French training for CDOS and early primary across the city. Félicitations!

Further congratulations to Heather Meechan (PT at ) on the recent happy arrival of her new baby son.

Danke! Glasgow bids a fond farewell to two German friends. Emmy and Mareike had been working in both primary and secondary schools as classroom assistants and FLAs. They have now both returned to Rostock where they will continue their studies to become teachers. They both had a considerable, positive impact on the pupils and staff they worked with and have truly mastered the Glasgow accent! You are both welcome anytime! French Immersion Courses with le Français en Ecosse, October 2012 There are subsidised courses available in Rennes and Lyon for both primary and secondary teachers, but the deadline for applications for funding to the British Council is 30 April 2012. If interested, please consult http://www.lfee.net/ .

CPD Courses Strathclyde University is hoping to offer a GTC-accredited CCEd (Certificate of Con- tinuing Education) evening degree programme in Italian this September. There may be funding available for certain candidates. If interested, please contact Dr. Paul Hare, Senior Language Teaching Fellow in Italian at [email protected] Please find below the team contact details

St. Brigid‘s Primary School, 4 Glenmore Avenue, Toryglen, Glasgow, G42 0EH Tel: 07733 307784 / Fax: 0141 647 2745

Gillian Campbell-Thow (tel. 287 3792) [email protected] Maryse Payen-Roy [email protected] Paul Middleton Return to list of features [email protected]

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