Our Lingofest – the Languages Faculty House Competition – is a Speaking Competition which saw over 450 Years 7-9 students represent their Houses in a foreign language reading competition. They read aloud songs and poems in 5 languages and were given points for pronunciation, intonation and dramatic effect. We had to approach the competition differently this year. All students recorded themselves and uploaded their performance to Google Classroom and we chose the winners from there. You can see/hear some of the recordings here!

German

The German Lingofest final saw pupils read or perform a variety of texts. Year 7 read and brought to life the nursery rhymes ‘Backe, Backe Kuchen’. There were lots of props and gesticulation to entertain and make the meaning clear. Year 8 read or sang the well-known and much enjoyed carnival song ‘Das Fliegerlied’ with appropriate sound effects. Year 9 read a poem ‘das Farbengedicht’, written by another student about how the colours can make us feel. All of our students gave their very best and scored lots of House Points for their efforts.

French

For the third year running, the French Department decided to explore poems by the famous French author Jacques Prévert for our popular Lingofest House competition. Years 7, 8 and 9 students represented their respective house in the Final, reading either “Le Cancre”. “En sortant de l’école” or “Le chat et l’oiseau”. This year, we conducted the Festival remotely and students recorded themselves reading the poems before uploading them on Google Classroom. We were very impressed with the intonation and pronunciation of our students and found it very difficult to choose a winner for each teaching group let alone an overall winner for each year group. Bravo tout le monde!

Italian

We focused on modern Italian poetry in the Italian department. Year 7 students read Sembra questo, sembra quello by Maria Enrica Agostinelli while Year 8 brought to life I mesi dell’anno by Renzo Pezzani and Year 9 took on Gianni Rodari’s personification of Il Vento. So much effort had been put into honing pronunciation and intonation and it was a delight to listen to the girls enjoying and exploring the sounds of la bella lingua! We are already looking forward to next year!

Russian

The Russian department used the linguofest as an opportunity to mark the Russian festival of Maslenitsa (pancake week) in years 7 and 9 students read aloud poetry about pancakes – блины. In year 8 students read the Russian version of the Giant turnip story – Репка. Mrs Parry and Mrs Willett were very pleased with the effort students went to and enjoyed hearing the poems being read so well. Special mentions go to Megan Cave, Venus Sahan and Rachel Harvey whose entries were particularly creative.

Spanish

Spanish pupils at Key Stage 3 put on some lovely performances of a variety of poems by writers from the Spanish-speaking world. Year 7 students performed an excerpt of ‘En un trozo de papel’, a beautiful poem about the imagination by Galician poet Antonio García Teijeiro. Year 8 did some excellent, well-pronounced performances of ‘Mariposa’ by one of the 20th century’s most famous Spanish poets: Federico García Lorca. Meanwhile, Year 9 students did really well with their renditions of ‘El viento en la isla’ by Chilean poet and Nobel Prize-winner Pablo Neruda. Well done to all who participated!