Language collaboration with ‘Big King’s’

It is always a pleasure for our King’s St Alban’s pupils to welcome King’s School Worcester pupils and last Monday, World Languages Day, was no exception.

A group of King’s School, Worcester language pupils made the short hop across the road ready to inspire King’s St Alban’s Year 3 and Year 4 pupils. As they arrived armed with essential teaching tools, namely sweets, stickers, teddy bears and games, the morning promised to be a wonderful celebration of languages across the King’s Foundation and a great collaboration between the Senior School and King’s St Alban’s. It was a great way to mark World Languages Day, celebrated last week.

Aiming to inspire Year 3, Senior School pupils, Millie and Charles had the pupils in fits of giggles as they played the ‘Splat Game’, one pupil suggesting that it was “tremendously fun!”. Millie and Charles then explored French colours and numbers to fit with Year 3’s curriculum learning. In Miss Jordan’s Year 4 class, Emilia and Ben enthralled the children with endless games of Spanish number bingo before getting active playing a colour game using a ball. Meanwhile, next door in Mrs Rickett’s Year 4 classroom pupils got to grips with the German language with an animal memory game, helped by Lola and Will. They rounded off their session with some animal bingo, practicing vital translation skills. Lola spoke fondly of her time at King’s St Alban’s, including her memory of being in Year 5 and participating in a very similar experience aged 10.

There is no doubt that whilst our pupils picked up some valuable vocabulary and linguistic skills, the whole experience was both valuable and inspiring for all concerned. The courage demonstrated by the group of teenagers in managing a class full of excited children aged from 7 years old to 9 year-olds requires skilful leadership; it was also fantastic to witness the lively participation from all of the King’s St Alban’s children.

It was wonderful to welcome back Millie, Lola, Emilia and Ben, who all attended King’s St Alban’s, and to see first hand their flair for languages.

The King’s St Alban’s teachers were also very pleased to see how these young people have grown in confidence and skill: a credit to the King’s Foundation journey. We are sure there are one or two future teachers in the making here.