Modern Foreign Languages Celebrates European Day of Languages
What a wonderful week this was for languages at Ballard School. We kicked off on the Monday with some quizzes in lessons in preparation for the assemblies and the form competition on Friday. On Tuesday, our Language Leaders spent both breaks chatting to pupils of all ages and taking selfies with our European Day of Language Selfie frame. How many children can you fit in one tiny frame? “A lot!” is the answer. There was some wonderful photo bombing as well and even Arthur, our School dog, posed long enough for a very nice shot.
Wednesday was all about the cakes! We had a record level of entries this year and the smell in the Chapel was extremely enticing. The competition was judged by our very own baking expert, and I know it was a tough call. Winners will be announced next week in assembly. We divided the cakes into 4 categories: Pre-Prep, Lower Prep, Upper Prep and Siblings cakes. We even had one cake from parents, but it was of course hors-compétition! The MFL Team has written to all bakers to feedback on their cake and thank them for their entry. Everyone should receive a postcard home next week.
The MFL Team also ran assemblies across all the sections of the School. It was wonderful to hear our bilingual pupils, from Pre-Prep to Senior School, stand in front of their peers and share a few words in their native languages. We were all fascinated by the sounds of different languages and learnt a few words along the way. As the week draws to an end, we hope our pupils will feel inspired by all they saw and heard this week. Vive les langues! Es lebe die Sprachen! ¡Qué vivan los idiomas!
Thank you to our Pasty Chef, Martine, who judged the cakes for us. Martine was brought up multilingual and can speak French, Mauritian Creole and has a degree in Japanese and Mandarin, having studied in Japan, so it was very special that she could judge this competition. Martine has experience working with Gordon Ramsay (and survived!), Gary Rhodes and the godfather of fusion cuisine, Peter Gordon, cooking for the late Queen Elizabeth. Martine commented that she loves working at Ballard as she is able to cook restaurant quality food in school hours, which allows her to spend more time with her family.
There aren’t many schools where you can play boule by La Tour Eiffel. Our children chose to play boules this week in our Le Club Français. Le Club is for our bilingual pupils who want to keep up with their French and scholars who are passionate about languages.
