Pupils win medals at World Languages Academic Festival

Laura Garcia Spanish teacher

  April 23rd was a day of celebration for the Modern Foreign Languages department. A group of ten pupils currently studying French and Spanish for their IGCSE course attended the World Languages Academic Festival. This festival, celebrated for the second consecutive year,  aims to connect pupils with a passion for learning languages. It is also an opportunity for them to demonstrate their knowledge of the culture of the language they are studying. Wellington College was invited to participate alongside four other international schools. On our way to the festival, a mix of nerves and excitement could be felt in the air. Our pupils spent the bus journey revising their notes and practising the pronunciation of their respective foreign languages. The first event our pupils took part in was the impromptu speaking session. Our pupils needed to speak for about a minute on a topic of their choice in either French or Spanish. The topics varied from past holidays and their daily routine to memories from their childhood. Every Wellingtonian did an outstanding job and thoroughly impressed the judges with their command of the respective languages. They were all roundly praised on their pronunciation, language usage, the use of a variety of tenses, topic-specific vocabulary, complex sentence structure and various other facets of linguistic ability. Ultimately, our pupils demonstrated a complete confidence in every element we would ask them to prepare for an IGCSE oral exam. Soon after, it was time for the debating session and we had a representative present for Spanish. Valentina joined forces with a pupil from SMIC and together they defended their position with regard to the use of animals in scientific experiments. It was definitely one to watch, with pupils presenting different viewpoints and fluidly supporting their arguments with facts and examples that demonstrated their excellent command of the Spanish language. Pupils from the other schools had created some posters to describe different festivals, traditions, important events in Spanish and French-speaking countries. These were very informative, and our pupils had the chance to learn various facts and trivia from them. There were also small challenges to complete while they were not actively involved in an event – crosswords, word searches and other puzzles that pupils had to solve in the target language. Later on, Mr Vaugondy and I had to put our judges’ hats on, as it was our time to evaluate the live talent show. The performances had been well prepared and there was plenty of variety on display, from dancing the Macarena, to a pupil rapping in French, a magic trick in Spanish and even a group of pupils who had written their own song about leaning Spanish (yes, they got my vote with the first “el español es interesante” in the chorus). We took many ideas from these performances and we hope we can encourage our pupils to take part in this category during a future edition of the festival. Once all the events were concluded and all the points added up, it was time for the award ceremony. The impromptu speaking participation awarded our French pupils bronze and silver medals, as well as silver and gold ones for our Spanish pupils. As for the debate, Valentina received a gold medal for her contribution. It was another highly successful participation in the festival, where our pupils, once again, presented themselves as true ambassadors of Wellington College.