‘Us two’ by A.A Milne

The Year 7 Russian class and our partner secondary school in Russia have created a collaborative work with students from both schools reciting the poem ‘Us two’ by A.A Milne in English and Russian. Friendship is very important in times like this, so the teachers thought this was the perfect poem. The languages department are so proud of the year 7s who have learnt to read so confidently from the Cyrillic script this year.

Year 7

In their last lesson of the year 7MRU enjoyed ordering themselves pancakes with a variety of fillings in their make-believe cafe in room 18. They also filmed some excellent Oscar worthy dialogues in a cafe whilst they were waiting to be served.

Year 7

Year 7 created some poems based around colours in French. They also had to use their dictionary and online dictionary skills to look up new words. In addition, they had to make sure they understood the correct genders so they could use the correct determiners in French. All in all there was a lot to think about! Well done 7SH for producing some creative and colourful poems.

Year 11

On Tuesday 19th October, Year 11 Russianists had the opportunity to zoom call Russian students of English from the International Arctic School in Yakutsk, Siberia. (https://arctic-school.com/en/home/).

There is an 8-hour time difference with this part of Siberia, so our 6 students arrived before school so that the Russian students could fit the session in before settling down for their evening.

The Russian students gave short presentations in Russian about ecological issues in their area of Siberia, and our Year 11s did really well listening for gist (an important exam skill, especially when the language is being spoken normal speed.) After the presentations in Russian, we discussed the issues in more detail and life in Siberia a bit more in English. We found out that due to the permafrost, all buildings are built on stilts and that -5 is considered warm weather.

It was a fantastic opportunity to broaden our use of Russian outside of the classroom and we look forward to the next contact with the students in Siberia.