MFL News

Modern Foreign Languages (MFL) are popular and thriving subjects at Pate’s, with all students taking two languages from French, German and Mandarin in Years 7 and 8, extending to Spanish as another option in Year 9. All of these languages are offered at GCSE, with French, German and Spanish also options at A Level.  This term’s MFL news largely focuses on language trips and exchanges to France, Germany and Spain, and those stories will follow separate posts. Here, we focus on some of the other achievements of Pate’s linguists, which date back to last term to give a rich picture of the language and culture experiences from which our students greatly benefit.

MFL Debating Competition, Cheltenham College

This year’s Modern Languages Debating Competition took place towards the end of the Autumn Term, in the majestic Thirlestaine House at Cheltenham College. The fierce but fun competition involved Sixth Form students studying Languages (French, German or Spanish) and we were delighted to have all languages represented with our brilliant Pate’s linguists in attendance. We are so grateful to Annabelle Milton and her wonderful, generous faculty for the invite and the warm welcome we received.

Three motions were published ahead of the debate to allow students to prepare some brief notes. The latter rounds were down to the luck of the draw, requiring students to rely on their creativity, communication skills, resourcefulness and problem-solving, with extra credit for flexibility, structures, humour and convincing arguments of course.

Competitors were:

French, 1 team – Sophie and Bryony, who debated valiantly until the Quarter Final rounds, commended for their French skills and complex language.

Spanish, 2 teams – Lucy, Eloise, Ella and Lily. These teams did exceedingly well and made it to the Semi Finals. They were praised by judges for their super Spanish skills and spoken language level.

German, 2 teams – Katie, Cyrus S, Natalie, Luke. Both teams did brilliantly, enjoyed much fun and healthy competition, with Katie and Natalie make it through to the Final, only to lose out by a 1 point margin!

Topics debated included:

French:

1. ChatGPT menace le système d’education et le monde de travail.
2. Le ados comprennent mieux le monde d’aujourd’hui que les grands-parents.
3. Les influenceurs ne sont pas des vrais professionels.

Spanish:

1. Los jóvenes deberían tener derecho a votar a partir de los 16 años.
2. La tauromaquia debería prohibirse en todo el país
3. La siesta debería ser un derecho laboral.

German:

1. Wir haben alle zu viel Geld.  Weniger ist mehr.
2. Autos und Flugzeuge sollten verboten werden.
3. Die heutige Gesellschaft ist eine gute Gesellschaft.

This event is a highlight of the year and it is always so impressive to relish in the incredible talents of the linguists at the top of the school. Well done all! A special vote of thanks and congratulations to all involved: our Pate’s French, German & Spanish competitors were all praised very highly indeed for the calibre of their spoken language and we are so proud of them!

Mrs Samantha Attwood
Head of Modern Languages

Japanese School Visit

In November, students from Shukutoku Sugamo High School in Tokyo visited Pate’s, as they do annually during their exchange visit to The Cotswolds, and our Year 9 students spent time with our visitors exploring Japanese activities, such as origami, calligraphy, dining etiquette and outdoor fun. Thank you as alwas to our visitors for joining us; it is always a fun day of activities and cultural enlightenment.

Shout Out for German

In celebration of “Shout Out for German Week”, Year 7 got creative to decode compound nouns and invent new ones. Two of their favourites were “Faultier” ( lazy animal – a sloth) and “Stinktier”(stink animal – a skunk). We also launched a competition to illustrate or invent a new compound noun in German. We were delighted to receive a huge number of entries, and the overall winner was Romany (Y8). Her new compound noun depicts the “illness you get stemming from being forced to wear uncomfortable fancy clothing”. Highly commended were Liyana and Subhayan.​​

Arabic Taster Sessions

In December, our German students in Years 7, 9 and 10 engaged in some multilingual creativity with three Arabic taster workshops, hosted by trainee teacher Mrs Kemp, to mark UN International Arabic Day (18 December). The students learned how to introduce themselves in Arabic and some greetings, before exploring a little Arabic script and trying a codebreaking and translation activity.

Year 7 produced a collaborative translation of Answer Me, Leila, a Syrian picture book that is a deaf-aware retelling of Rapunzel. The Year 9 and 10 groups translated a poem about peace and compassion by Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish, before writing lines for a collaborative multilingual poem, which was inspired by the poem. Here are a few of the lines penned by students in English, Korean, Latin, German and Arabic, with one group combining vocabulary from the poem with Arabic words they had previously come across from other sources. Very creative! Well done everyone – great codebreaking and creative writing!