European day of languages

It's European Day of Languages and to celebrate Head of Languages Mr Bridge, pictured below:

Organised a special day here at UGS, starting with an assembly this morning that showcased the international multilingual talents of our students and staff.

In our lead picture and above, Mr Bridge can be seen with the students who volunteered to speak brilliantly in the languages in which they are fluent: Hadassah 7M: Yoruba; Mishaal 7T: Urdu; Vedhika 7U: Tamil; Ayesha 7U: Urdu; Amen 7M: Japanese/Cantonese; and Robert 7T: Armenian.

Mr Bridge also celebrated the huge breadth of languages spoken by our students in our multicultural school community, that totals a phenomenal 44.

With an impressive 284 of our students able to speak in another language at home.

In a video montage, many members of our staff were also keen to showcase their multilingual proficiency in languages, including: French, German, Urdu, Arabic, Mandarin, Spanish and Tagalog.

Mr Bridge shared with the students the many skills developed in learning another language, not least confidence, resilience, curiosity, kindness, respect and leadership. All of which, of course, also embody our core UGS values of Pride, Participation and Empathy, while offering huge enrichment benefits.

At UGS, we are delighted to deliver a great many extracurricular in Languages, with clubs such as Foreign Language Film Club on offer throughout the year; and the department facilitates the participation of our students in a huge variety of national competitions and initiatives, including the Anthea Bell Prize for Young Translator's. We are incredibly proud that Year 13 student Adam enjoyed huge success in this competiton earlier this year, and he shared his experience with the students. Mrs Chadwick will be coordinating entries for the new prize soon, details to be released!

In addition to our celebratory assembly, students and staff will be showcasing their multilingual skills throughout the day and the coming week, by wearing stickers with the words for "hello" and "how are you" in another language on their blazers, and by engaging in foreign language activities in form and in class.

We look forward to seeing our school community celebrating language learning still more moving forward, and to exploring the opportunities on offer to develop their language skills.

With huge thanks to Mr Bridge and our wonderful student assembly volunteers for inspiring us all!