LANGUAGES & COMMUNICATION

Languages &

Department/Faculty reviews

Communication

English

In what has been a much more ‘normal’ year in the English Department, our pupils have continued to show enthusiasm and creativity in their English lessons. We were faced with the ongoing challenge of remote and blended learning throughout the year, but, in true Shebbearian spirit, have found effective ways of making this work in the best way possible and have seen some excellent work produced throughout the year.

The opening of our new Beckly Library, run by Mrs Fanet, has been widely appreciated across the Prep and Senior Schools. It has been so encouraging to see the pupils visit at break and lunchtimes, where they can relax, take some time out to read and borrow books and, for senior school pupils, login to access the library from their own devices. Book club has also been an extremely popular choice of activity throughout the year.

It was fantastic to celebrate with our Form 5 and Upper Sixth pupils last summer as they received some impressive A-Level and GCSE English results. We are delighted that last year’s A-Level English students, Poppy, Bridget, Bess, Cameron and Bradley all continued with their English studies at university.

Our current Upper Sixth A-Level English group had a fantastic opportunity to attend Appledore Book Festival in September, where they enjoyed a talk by Gill Hornby about her latest book, Miss Austen and received signed copies. Elsewhere in the department, KS3 classes are following a curriculum designed to promote independent learning and prepare them effectively for their GCSE studies, while still allowing them to have fun and enjoy exploring the subject.

It has been fantastic to be able to welcome visitors back into school again and in October, our Prep 6 and Form 1 pupils enjoyed a day with children’s author Tamsin Cooke, who spoke to them about the inspiration behind her books before running a creative writing workshop. We saw some excellent acting skills including an impressive zombie impersonation by Mr Foale!

In the Lent term, Form 2 attended an inspiring session with local environmentalist and author Martin Dorey, when they learnt how much they can do to fight plastic and climate change, tying in nicely with their work on the Surfers Against Sewage Plastic Free Schools Programme in their PHSE lessons. Finally, we welcomed Old Shebberian and poet Peter Danby at the start of Trinity Term who spoke to Form 4 about his recently published collection of poems, On Life, and his memories of school!

The Bookbuzz scheme, kindly funded by our PTA group, the Friends of Shebbear College, is always a hit with our Form 1 pupils, with each child receiving a book from a wonderfully diverse list of choices. Form 1, joined by Prep 5 and 6 this year, also took part in the Readathon, reading as many books as they can to raise money for children’s hospitals’ book supplies. 101 books were read in October and November and £511.80 was raised for this excellent cause.

In conjunction with the Library, five of our pupils have also been involved in the judging panel for the Carnegie Award for Best Children’s book. They took part in a shadowing group and between them, have read all the books on the shortlist. They submitted their votes for best book after May Half Term and we look forward to finding out which one has won!

The English Department

Modern Forgeign Languages

Despite the challenges of the last two years, we have had a busy time in the Languages Department. The popularity of studying a foreign language remains strong and we currently have five A-Level pupils in the Lower Sixth, two studying Spanish, and three French. French continues to be in demand for our Short Term Boarders, especially German pupils, and we have also tried to accommodate pupils into language lessons to fit their ability, irrrespective of their actual year group. This has led to some interesting classes and it is good to be able to have this flexibility.

Of course, the pandemic again disrupted some of the year, but because of this, we all learnt so many new skills, adapting to online lessons and remote learning which was actually very interesting. Pupil engagement was superb and our classes continued pretty much as normal during the lockdown periods. The main thing that has been missing this year has been our wonderful visits and trips, but we hope that these will resume next year.

This year two native speakers took their GCSE examinations a year early. Dante took Spanish and Felix took German. We also had Kania who took her Chinese A-Level and Ringo and Sara who took their GCSE. Charlotte also took her AS French as she will be leaving us to go back to Germany at the end of the year. We wish them all the best of luck with these exams.

We look forward to being able to have a more normal year next year in terms of trips, and other exciting activities.

Mrs Aliberti Modern Foreign Languages