On Friday 30 June, The Cotswold School welcomed 110 Year 4s, their teachers and support staff, for a Languages Day.
Over the course of the morning, students took part in a carousel of activities linked to European languages and their culture. Activities were run and taught by our Year 9 Language Leaders and Year 11 and 12 linguists.
Speaking about the Language Leaders Award, Mrs Adams, EAL Coordinator said,
“The Language Leader Award is a fantastic opportunity for those pupils who have a love of languages and are interested in working with younger children.
After attending weekly sessions to understand the basics of teaching languages, they work collaboratively to plan and prepare short lessons in the language of their choice which they deliver at our local primary school.
In addition, they host over 100 local primary aged pupils here at The Cotswold School at the Year 4 Language Day, delivering language lessons they’ve planned and leading them in a range of other cultural activities.
As well as improving their language skills and learning how to teach; taking part in the Language Leaders Award allows the pupils to develop their communication, confidence, time management, initiative, IT skills and resilience. They’re taken out of their comfort zone and given the skills and confidence to learn how to cope and thrive.
The growth I’ve seen in all of the pupils involved has been inspirational. It’s been a privilege to work with them!”
Speaking about the Language Leaders course, Year 9 students said,
“I got involved in language leaders so that I could teach languages and help children learn something new and (hopefully) interesting. I wanted other children to be able to communicate with people and develop their language knowledge. I enjoyed learning how to teach languages and teaching children a range of topics centred around German, including German culture, but, in particular, watching them learn and (hopefully) enjoy what they were learning. I learnt how to teach languages, but also how to engage the minds of the children I taught, which was something that I really struggled to do before. I improved my communication skills, particularly communicating clearly with younger children and people I was teaching. I also improved my confidence, as I had previously been quite shy around unfamiliar people, and although I still am, I now have techniques to help me. I was challenged to step outside my comfort zone and try things that I struggled with before, all while helping others learn something new as well.” Rufus (Y9)
“I joined Language leaders as I knew it would give me many great opportunities later in life, Language Leaders has also helped to contribute to my Duke of Edinburgh Award. I thoroughly enjoyed all of the experience I have gained, specifically from teaching children languages, which in turn has strengthened my vocabulary of a language to some extent. I have learnt the difficulties of planning lessons without fails. I have improved my speaking and teaching skills and my confidence when speaking to crowds has definitely improved.” Leah-Mary (Y9)
