Our Y8 French students have been busy this week creating models of the Simon Balle community, all accompanied with French leaflets or brochures.

Highlights included a replica of the three-storey building made entirely of chocolate sponge, a Simon Balle school prospectus completely in French and even the Simon Balle school website written entirely in French!

Take a look at our photos to see their astounding efforts. The quality of their French written work was highly impressive.

Bon effort! Bravo!

Linguavision, the MFL Y7 singing competition, took place on last Tuesday.

The event, which was hosted by our Y12 language leaders, Alfie G and Liberty N, began with an outstanding performance by the MFL staff and the Y13 language leaders who sang “Avenir” by the French artist Louane. They were ably accompanied by Jessica M and Rose S, who displayed their impressive talents on the saxophone. This was followed by performances from each of the six Y7 forms, each form showcasing their singing prowess in French or Spanish and trying their very best to win the competition.  Some forms even went as far as masterminding a dance routine!

At the heart of the afternoon was the Y2 singing performance. They performed “la fruta”, a song about different types of fruits, without any words to guide them – a truly impressive feat! Their excellent pronunciation and intonation demonstrated what linguists and researchers have always stressed: languages are best learned at a younger age.

All students, including the Y2, were given the chance to vote for their favourite performance. Winners’ medals were awarded to:

• 7N, for the best Spanish performance, with their song “Sofia” by Alvaro Soler and
• 7A, for the best French act, with their performance of “Maman” by Louane.
• Y2 students received MFL postcards thanking them for their participation and beautiful performance.

In order to participate in this event, students had to learn the lyrics of their respective songs by heart, led by their teachers. This was an opportunity for them to acquire new and challenging vocabulary as well as practise pronunciation. Congratulations to all the singers who took part in Linguavision and a big thank you to the staff and students involved in its organisation. They showed resilience, determination …. and a lot of enthusiasm!

Sofia song 7N from Simon Balle on Vimeo.

In February, a group of Y8 students had the opportunity to spend a few days in St Omer, a city full of history and culture which is located in the North of France. Thanks to this experience, students were able to reinforce their classroom-based learning through immersion in the culture and daily rhythms of French life.

Highlights of our trip included linguistic experiences such as town trails and market visits which provided target language-focused opportunities to practise speaking in French with native speakers and to test comprehension and reading skills in French. Students also experienced a range of exciting cultural visits and workshops, including a snail tasting workshop and visits to chocolate, sweet and biscuits producers. The most popular excursion proved to be our visit to Le Touquet and the aquarium Nausicaa, which is the largest European complex entirely devoted to marine life. Students particularly enjoyed watching sea lions practice their skills live and visiting the penguins!

The trip was such an enriching experience, both linguistically and culturally. For some students this was their first time in France, or even abroad, and it was a pleasure to watch them deepen their language skills and grow in confidence whilst interacting with the local people.

Simon Balle has recently received a rather exciting package in the post, all the way from our link school, Samba Njabeh, in the Gambia. Earlier last year, you may recall that some of our students became penfriends with them.

Many of the school children in the Gambia have been busy writing letters to our Simon Balle students. In these letters, they speak of their families, school and the Gambian way of life.

This experience has given us a deep insight into how different, and often difficult, life can be for some of these Gambian children and a chance for our students to reflect on things we may take for granted.

As always, we are committed to ensuring that every Simon Balle student becomes a citizen who embodies our ‘GROUP’ values:

G – Globally aware

R – Respectful

O – Open-minded

U – Understanding

P – Pro-active

Students who are interested in replying to the letters should go to L2 on Wednesday 17th January during lunchtime.