MFL HALF TERM UPDATE
This half term has been a busy one for Team MFL. It has seen a number of events: the annual Lower School Poetry Competition, a “World in Wiltshire” visit from pupils from Cognac, both a Spanish and a German play by the Onatti Theatre Company and finally, our much-loved exchange visit from our Y9 Spanish partners from Zaragoza. Like to know how all of these panned out? Then read on!
For the third time, Team MFL have organised a poetry competition as a joint Senior and Prep School project. All pupils from Years 6, 7 and 8 prepared a French, Spanish or German poem in pairs or alone (Year 8 even learnt one in two languages!) which they presented to the rest of their class in the lesson. Several juries, consisting of Warminster teachers, visiting exchange teachers or Sixth Form native pupils, selected the three best performers who then presented their poem in the final. The quality of the performances was outstanding and it was incredibly difficult to choose the winners.
This year, the winners were:
Y6 and Y7 French poetry winners
1st – Barnaby Craven-Smith
Joint 2nd – Livvy Curry, Niamh Crinion, Ella Morgan-Nash, Darcy Hunter and Millie Watts
Joint 3rd – Sunny Yang, Anna Galpin, Logan Wear and Phoebe King
Year 8 French poetry winners
1st – Maddie Nickell
2nd – Wolfie Mowbray and Sam Bell
3rd – Lucy Rodgerson
Y8 Spanish poetry winners
1st – Delilah Johns
2nd – Maddie Nickell
3rd – Lucy Rogerson
Y8 German poetry winners
Joint 1st – Maddie Dempsey and Zoe Palmer Oliver Nathan and Tom Muir
2nd – William Doyle-Davidson
Joint 3rd – Will Moxham and Georgios Kyriakides
From 22nd to 29th January, we welcomed a group of World in Wiltshire Sixth Form pupils from Cognac to Warminster School. The World in Wiltshire groups are not part of our exchange programmes as such – they consist of pupils who have been chosen by their schools to come to Warminster as they have shown excellent dedication to their studies, to be immersed in our school system and culture. Warminster School pupils and teachers have been accommodating and have welcomed the pupils into their lessons. This project is proving to be enormously beneficial for our Sixth Form pupils to raise national awareness. The pupils wrote some lovely comments on their departure, which are a credit to our whole community. A few examples:
“This trip was amazing and I could not have expected more.” “I enjoyed the different classes with excellent teachers.” “I want to come back!” and even “The food is better than in France!”
Meanwhile, pupils in Years 7-11 had fun watching a Spanish play on 23rd January. “La Casa Encantada” was a highly entertaining play about a haunted house and it certainly amused our pupils. As usual, the fantastic actors from the Onatti Theatre Company used lots of gestures and repetition so the play was easy to follow and our pupils picked up lots of new vocabulary. Tia Smye, despite only having had a few taster Spanish sessions, was brilliant when she was chosen to come up onto the stage and take part in the story. A little out of her comfort zone but she gave it her all! Iksha Limbu, Katja Lindblom and Anna Galpin from Year 7 were equally amazing when being chosen to come up onto the stage in the German play “Hausarrest”, a play about a boy who has all sorts of funny complications whilst being gated for the afternoon. Again, after only doing German once a fortnight for some taster lessons, they were fantastic and even answered some questions in German, in front of all their friends. Needless to say, there was one very proud teacher sitting in the audience.
Finally, Year 9 welcomed their Spanish exchange partners from Zaragoza into their lives from 1st to 7th February. Due to so many generous offers, all the Spanish pupils were fortunate enough to spend the week with the families of their exchange partners or in the boarding houses and could therefore experience the British lifestyle first-hand. Mr Sustek organised an amazing programme for the exchange pupils which included visits to Bath and Stonehenge. The Year 9 pupils, as well as some Year 10 pupils who were involved, were truly fantastic at making sure that their Spanish friends had a good time, both in lessons and at their homes. Our Year 9 pupils will go to Zaragoza in May with Mr Sustek and they are already excited about seeing how their Spanish exchange buddies live!
We are also looking forward to welcoming our second World in Wiltshire group soon who will visit us next half term. Meanwhile, work on our Erasmus+ funded programme is keeping everyone in Year 10 busy considering cultural aspects of food. Our research question is: Are we really what we eat? Don’t forget to keep up to date with this and all the other MFl events on Twitter @WarminsterM
Barbara Mitterrutzner, German & EAL Teacher