Polish lessons

During the months of March and April, a group of students from Year 9 participated in ‘Survival Polish’ course organized by Ilona Zarajczyk, the Comenius Assistant from our school. The course was in preparation for the Comenius Partnership and student exchange between Sir John Cass and 6 other European countries incuding a school in northern Poland. During the sessions students learnt about Polish geography, culture and cuisine. They also learnt how to introduce themselves, have a basic conversation in Polish and speak about their likes and dislikes. In recognition of their skills, the students received a certificate confirming their knowledge of Polish and in addition they prepared glogs – interactive posters (of course in Polish!) which you can find below

http://dratinide.glogster.com/
http://faizah96.glogster.com/faizah/
http://miriam97.glogster.com/polish-miriam/

The new year with new plans

We have abusy term ahead with visits, training sessions and meetings all focused on enhancing the work of the languages department at Sir John Cass School.

Friday 15th we will be holding our annual training event for new Foreign Language assistants. This is open to any FLAs and letters have gone out to schools in east London.

Friday 3rd December we willbe hosting a training day for teachers of languages with a focus on cultural understanding in MFL lessons.

In late November a group of teachers from Lithuania, Slovakia, Poland, Turkey and more will be coming to Sir John Cass to plan a joint project between all our schools which we hope to run next year.

In October we will welcome our first ever Comenius assistant who will be joining us from Poland.

There is much more planned and we will keep you informed throug the website and the blog.

The European Day of Languages

The European Day of Languages is fast approaching. This takes place on 26th September every year and is celebrated at Sir John Cass and many other schools in the UK. You can read more about this day at www.cilt.org.uk/home/valuing%20languages/european%20day%20of%20languages.aspx

Italia, Italia, Italia

In July we were visited at Sir John Cass by students from a school near Naples, Italy. Year 9 hosted the visit and took the visitors to lessons. This was a fantastic opportunity to work with another school and we look forward to another visit which will take place in October.

Italy win the world cup

To celebrate the World Cup at SJCR all tutor groups participated in a competition during the first weeks of June. Following a draw all tutor groups adopted a world cup participating country and worked to make their form room reflect the country through displays. The level of creativity and effort displayed was a credit to students at Sir John Cass. Many hours were spent creating displays, presentations on the countries, food and even dances. Congratulations to 9S representing Italy who won in the final against a strong contender, 10S representing Australia.

Alumnos de años 9 y 10, ¡en Sevilla!

From 23-29th May 2010 a group of Year 9 & 10 students attended a Spanish language course in Seville and spent a great day with pupils from our partner school El Fontanal in Lebrija, where they took part in music and sports activities.  The students stayed with host families and got a real taste of Spanish life – here are some of our favourite photos from the trip…

The World Cup at SJCR

Friday the World Cup draw takes place at Sir John Cass! All tutor groups will adopt a participating country and will take part in a competition to see who can decorate their tutor room to best reflect their country. May the best tutor group win!

Try Life in Another Language

www.channel4.com/entertainment/t4/advertorial/try-life-in-another-language/index.html

Language Mentors from Barclays Capital at Sir John Cass School

Click on the article for a larger version.

A Comenius Project for SCJR

At SJCR we are in the final stages of putting together an application to run a Comenius Project. This is a European Union funded initiative which has two main objectives:

• to develop knowledge and understanding among young people and education staff of the diversity of European cultures and languages, and the value of this diversity
• to help young people to acquire basic life skills and competences for their personal development, for future employment and for active European citizenship

Our project titled “The Changing Face of Europe – Our Future” will bring together 8 schools from all corners of the continent: Austria, Finland, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, Spain and Turkey. As the coordinating school at Sir John Cass we will host meetings attended by staff and students from these countries and students and staff from Sir John Cass will also get the opportunity to do the same at our partner institutions.

It is our aim that through these new links and cooperation, we will develop increasing understanding of each others’ cultures as well as a shared vision for the future of education in Europe.