French Christmas Markets
On Thursday 15 to Sunday 18 December we went to France to experience the wonderful French Christmas markets and to help develop our French speaking skills. The trip was for French GCSE students in Years 10 and 11.
German Trip the Goethe-Institut
A group of 24 German students from Years 9 and 10 recently travelled into London to visit the Goethe-Institut. Located in South Kensington and surrounded by a range of cultural sights, the institute is the central hub of German language and culture in the UK. During our visit, students took part in a German escape room (Fluchtraum), using tablets with augmented reality to scan for clues. Working in teams, they solved puzzles in German to find codes for various combination locks, with the aim of tracking down and catching a German hacker. Miss Roderick and I, as well as the staff working at the institute, were impressed with their understanding of German and their problem-solving skills. All students received some (vegan) Gummibärchen for their efforts and some German badges too. Despite train delays, our students remained positive and enthusiastic and we had a great day out!
Mr Bowman, MFL
London Spanish Film Festival
Spanish A level and Year 11 students recently attended the London Spanish Film Festival, which took place at the Ciné Lumière in South Kensington.
We met at Bishop’s Stortford train Station at 3.35pm and travelled into London via train and the tube. We arrived in plenty of time to be able to grab a bite to eat before making our way to the cinema on foot. It was so great to be in London again after so long!
We chose the film “La Isla de las Mentiras” (Island of Lies) which had a very unusual but interesting storyline. It was about a shipwreck off the coast of a small Galician island and how the people dealt with the incident, with lots of twists and turns.
I enjoyed the whole experience of watching the film in Spanish; it made me think about the cultural aspects involved and how the film was made (we study a film as part of our course). This trip was also very helpful in terms of developing my listening skills, and being totally absorbed in something different. I would recommend this trip to any Spanish student as it was beneficial and an enjoyable experience. We will look forward to the next one!
Alice Peacock, Year 13
Our MFL Bitmoji Classroom!
Welcome to our Year 6 Transition virtual classroom! Click on our faces, posters, items in the bookshelf etc & discover the world of MFL at Birchwood High School.
Click here to explore the MFL Bitmoji Classroom!
Le Touquet
Early on Monday 7 October, a large group of Year 9 French students got on a coach and drove to France for 5 days. On our first day we visited Boulogne, the fabulous gardens and walked down to Nausicaá sea life centre. We then travelled to our hotel, L’Hippôtel in Le Touquet. On day two we went to a fish market followed by an explore around the market in Étaples, which was very traditional. Later on we went swimming and enjoyed lots of lovely French food at our hotel. During our stay we also had the opportunity to visit Vimy Ridge and actually went into a real trench (the visitors centre was also very interesting) followed by the
Canadian War Memorial. In Arras we went into Les Boves (the underground tunnels used for lots of different reasons over the years) and shopped for the most delicious cakes! The town of Le Touquet was quiet at this time of year, but very pretty, and we enjoyed the most amazing crêpes after doing our town trail and having our packed lunches on the beach. We also had a talk from L’Escargotier, where he talked us through why snails are so important to French culture. We also go to eat them which was a unique experience too. That afternoon we had an adventure in the trees at Opalaventure which was so much fun. On our final day. Bruno the Boulanger talked to us about his traditional way of bread-making and afterwards we had an enormous pain au chocolat! A lot of eating took place and everyone enjoyed it! Thanks to Miss Roderick and Mrs Dixon for organising the trip and to Mrs Madsen and Mrs de Graaf for accompanying us; Scott the coach driver was totally awesome too!
William Gilbank, Year 9, BBC reporter
European Day of Languages
At Birchwood we have celebrated European Day of Languages with a fabulous cultural fayre with students representing a wonderful array of countries, cultures and of course food.
Spanish Festival
Two A level Spanish students, along with Miss Roderick and Mrs Madsen, took a trip down to Portobello Road for a fabulous, culturally
immersive and enriching experience. The Portobello Spanish Festival aims to “bring a taste of spanish culture” to the streets of London, and it delivered. We explored the vast array of street stalls, the most popular in our case being the one selling churros con chocolate! There were interactive flamenco performances throughout the day, with live singers, but our highlight was later on, when we had the pleasure of experiencing a live Cuban jazz band, complete with the necessary flair and hip-shaking rhythm, as proven by Mrs Madsen and her son, Jago, with whom we had met up with earlier, taking to the floor to show us how it’s done! It was a fitting finale to a great day, enjoyed by all!
Le Touquet 2018
Year 9, recently returned from their fantastic trip to Le Touquet. During the week the students immersed themselves in French culture, food and history. They had fun cooking traditional bread in wood fired ovens at an artisan Boulangerie and tried snails after visiting an organic snail farm. Other activities the students tried included Opalaventure high ropes course and exploring the caves at Arras where soldiers stored food and lived in during WWII. Students said they felt it had been the best trip they had been on.
Willkommen an die Deutschen!
On 14 September, our German exchange partners arrived for the second part of the exchange. The partners spent the weekend with host families and went to places like London, Ely, Cambridge and more, seeing local tourist spots and learning about British culture and lifestyle.
Day activities included a day in school, a day trip to Cambridge and a town trail around Bishop's Stortford and Saffron Walden. They also went to London, seeing landmarks such as St. Paul’s and the London Eye.
They learnt so much about our culture while they were over here and we got to compare German and British
customs, looking at the differences in our attitudes and habits. It was fun to learn about the difference in language, especially when one of us played Dobble, a picture-based card game with our partner.
At the airport at the end of the week, hugs and farewells were exchanged and many tears were shed, but everyone had a fantastic time and we hope that lifelong friendships were made!
The students would love to thank Mr Bowman, Miss Roderick and Mrs Dixon for organising the exchange, as well as to those who participated from the Peter-Joerres Gymnasium and would fully recommend it to the next set of GCSE German students!
You can see more images of the trip on the Birchwood MFL Twitter page, @MFLbwood.
Mr Bowman
Modern Foreign Languages