Online workshop with the University of Bristol

On Tuesday 21st January Year 12 students of Italian were given an insight into one of the hottest Italian TV series of the moment during an interactive workshop with the University of Bristol. Professor Catherine O’Rawe, who has recently been writing a book about Italian youth television, told us all about Mare Fuori, a gritty teen drama set in a fictional juvenile prison in Naples.

During the session we considered different representations of the city, looking at the inviting clichés portrayed in two Dolce & Gabbana adverts and contrasting them with the dark and dangerous criminal underworld seen in the Mare Fuori trailer. Then Professor O’Rawe told us about Neapolitan melodrama and we saw examples of this while analysing the emotion and physicality in a very raw scene from the series. We then discussed music from the series and analysed the lyrics of a song. Professor O’Rawe was very impressed with the engagement of our students and the session provided a taste of what it’s like to study Italian at undergraduate level. In fact, Nyah and Polly, two of our former students, are currently in their third year studying Italian in Professor O’Rawe’s department! Mrs Evenden

What did the students say?

I enjoyed it because it was a nice wider application of our understanding. It helped consolidate and introduce knowledge on Italian culture. I also enjoyed having discussions with our class and listening to the professor’s insight. Sai

I enjoyed learning about Italian culture and the media industry. I was surprised that Naples is so heavily romanticised and the dangers of the place that is hidden from the public. Sophia

It was very interesting to learn about different media in Italy and I loved learning more about Naples. Lara

I found the themes very interesting. I liked how the adverts and the trailer presented Naples in very different lights. I was surprised by the fact that some of the actors in the show were not professional. Elizabeth

I was already aware that different cities in Italy had different dialects. However, hearing the Neapolitan dialect was shocking! Madelina I thought it was interesting to compare the representation of Naples in adverts compared to in Mare Fuori. I enjoyed analysing the lyrics and thinking about the use of different tenses. Jess

Year 7

The Year 7 Russian class enjoyed a trip to the Russian Cafe of their own design on Monday 15th July. Mrs Willett was very impressed not only with the class’ willingness to try new things, but also their ability to order them in Russian. Well done Year 7!

To mark the UN International day of Peace on September 21st our link school in Russia, the International Arctic School, invited us to share a Peace message or poem with them and they shared the following in return.

Recital: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UUVadct8R6GSLY1zgyuzwAxjpPo0SJLX/view?usp=sharing Poem: https://powerpoetry.org/poems/world-peace-19

Year 10 and 11 Russian both videoed performances of different poems on the theme of peace. If you know someone in the class and would like to see the performance, please ask them to share it. Both classes worked really hard on their pronunciation and delivery and Mrs Willett was very proud of them.

The students in Yakutsk were very pleased to receive our peace poems and understood every word so well that they were able to translate the Russian poems back into English for their English teacher.

Spellian

Well done to the 32 students who participated in our language exchange with Spellian. This year we continued our partnership with Liceo Ancina in Italy and began new connections with students IES Severo Ochoa in Spain and Gymnasium Holzkirchen in Germany.

Spellian conversations are done from home, by video conference, using the Spellian online platform. Each conversation lasts around 30 minutes, with half of the time spent speaking in Italian and half in English. The programme provides an excellent opportunity for students to strengthen their listening and speaking skills and boost their confidence in speaking a foreign language in a relaxed and friendly atmosphere. Many of our students have formed real friendships with their partners and discovered lots of interesting details about life in Italy, Spain and Germany. Video calls with people we don’t know can be intimidating and we are very proud of the resilience shown by the students who took part.

We will be launching Spellian 2023-24 again in September to MFL students in Year 10 upwards and we strongly encourage students to take part (it even counts towards the Skills section for the Duke of Edinburgh Award!).

Mrs Evenden