On the morning of Friday 5th November, every pupil in Year 11 was involved in the Languages & Careers day in which pupils learnt about the different skills required in the world of work and the importance of knowing a language to enhance their opportunities. All pupils had the opportunity to experience two taster sessions in a choice of different languages including Japanese, Russian, Italian, Hebrew and Linguistics to enhance their knowledge of different languages and cultures from around the world.
This year we were pleased to welcome Mr David Binns, CEO of Sanako, the company behind the school’s language lab and Mr Cyrille Rollet from the Department of Languages and Cultures at Lancaster University. Mr Rollet gave pupils a thorough insight into the benefits of studying languages at a higher level, or even beginning another language whilst at University, and described all of the routes of study that can be taken with languages at Lancaster University, whilst Mr Binns shared his journey to becoming the CEO of Sanako by having studied language as an adult, when working as a technician for the company. Pupils found both talks informative and gave them an insight into two different career paths with their language skills.
After our visitors’ talks, pupils began their taster session, learning about how words and sounds work and about the cultures of different languages. They also saw and had the opportunity to use the different alphabets and sounds of non-latin based languages whilst learning simple greetings. Finally, pupils participated in group discussions in their form groups about the skills required for a wide variety of jobs that could have a language element to them and discussed why these skills are so important for their future.
Pupils said that they found the sessions informative and their favourite activities included learning how to write their name in Japanese and Hebrew.
Thank you to Miss Nurney, Mr Gould, Mr Sinclair and Miss Hall for their time and expertise