If you’d have told us in September that by the end of the year we would be teaching live online lessons, getting student work retweeted by celebrity chefs, creating a variety of Spanish and French cuisine, making models of monuments in a range of media and creating online escape rooms, we wouldn’t have believed you! What we would have believed however, is that Sharples students would rise to the challenges presented to them and produce some tremendous work.
The last term has been a busy one in the MFL department. Students have kept up with their learning and staff have been learning and developing their skills in using technology. Through using Google Classroom and live lessons, we have continued to develop and practise listening, reading, writing and even speaking skills. We have also used the time in lockdown to be creative and discover more about the culture of French and Spanish speaking countries. Pupils in Year 7 and Year 8 have produced some delicious looking dishes, including paella, croissants and mousse au chocolat (pictured above). Daniel Fernandes in Year 8 used a recipe by the famous French chef Raymond Blanc and his resulting mousse au chocolat was retweeted by Monsieur Blanc himself! Students have also been researching towns in French and Spanish speaking countries and have created replicas of famous monuments using Lego, cardboard, Minecraft and even cake! There are lots of examples pictured below.
We have been sharing lots of student achievements on Twitter, including our weekly MFL stars, which have sometimes been difficult to pick, as there were too many potential winners. Every week we have had a mini competition on Twitter with a French and Spanish joke which has proved popular. Students have been using every opportunity to practice their languages, by using apps to learn new vocabulary, listening to French and Spanish radio and even changing the language setting on their phones. We have been incredibly impressed with how well students have engaged with distance learning, how well they have participated in live lessons and how hard our students have worked in these challenging circumstances.
