A foreign flavour has certainly been in the air this half term as our CET student Language Leaders have produced some fantastic projects this term. Students from across key stages came together in their respective schools to demonstrate a true passion for culture, language and diversity. Their latest venture centres around creating their very own dual language book with a Christmas theme. The book features the same copy in English and one other language, to allow the reader to develop their own language skills and enjoy the delights of not just one culture, but two! Crafted entirely by the students themselves, these books are being shared with other CET schools in this last week of term either online or through a live reading by students. Today the Language Leaders at William Howard School and Caldew Lea primary school shared their stories with each other in person. A number of CET schools have taken part in the initiative as part of ongoing exciting cross-trust student opportunities. In this case, reading and writing are key foci, as well as encouraging students to speak a language in front of a peer group audience.
Language Leaders, originally developed as the primary school student voice strand of the CET primary MFL Curriculum, is a growing enterprise. Primary Language Leaders have already designed and led their own Language and Culture themed event, from Bastille Day to cultural assemblies to food festivals. They meet online and share ideas, outcomes and progress in learning languages; students enjoy meeting their peers from across the Trust and working as one. They have developed their own logo and motto for the Language Leader brand and now secondary Language Leaders are submitting their own ideas for a badge. Both primary and secondary schools value the importance of giving Languages a platform; there have been some superb wall displays to showcase the Language Leaders’ efforts and most recently, Workington Language Leaders have even produced a Christmas Culture quiz to share with CET schools.
The expectation is that all trust Language Leaders will collaborate on key projects to increase cultural opportunities and events, inspire passion and enthusiasm for language learning and raise the profile of languages in CET schools with a view to developing life-long language learners. A key feature of the group is that it is inclusive of our post-16 students, with Lucy Wilson and Charlotte Bell in particular, proving to be excellent role models for our younger students. We look forward to January when secondary and primary language leaders will unite online to embrace their next project and show that they really are being the best they can be!
