Japanese and Chinese Intensive Courses

Around 90 Year 8 students (and some Year 9s) have been working hard during their Japanese and Chinese intensive courses. For two weeks, they discarded their normal timetable in order to attend all-day sessions in their foreign language, culminating in assessments at the end. Probably more fun than the tests were the several practical workshops they attended:

The Chinese learners had wok cookery lesson and and were treated to a trip to Wellington College to experience the school's new Chinese Centre, where they watched paper cutting and Taichi fan dancing demonstrations and could join in a fan dance routine.

Fan dancing practice at Wellington College

The Japanese students could try their hands at making sushi and learned about origami, producing lovely creatures by folding paper. Aided by visitors from Japan 21, an organisation promoting Japanese language and culture, they could also find out about Kimonos and try them on themselves. 

Both groups had instruction in martial arts by visiting experts!

The Japanese teachers and the samurai experts

Derek from Wutan UK teaching the Chinese students

Luckily, everyone survived the sword fighting

Beautiful origami swans

Making sushi - Don't get fish fingers...

No, you can't take them home - but they look very fetching....

Pupils' accounts of the French trip

Here are some more pupils' accounts and pictures of the year 7 trip to France 2013.

My time in France

Harry Walton (7G) writes:

On Monday I got up for France at 2:00 to get on the coach and leave at 3:00. I was really tired but excited at the same time. When we got on the coach and we started to drive off, I waved goodbye to my mum and sat down and went to sleep until we got to Dover. Then we got the ferry and sailed to France. We got to Calais and drove for a good 8 hours. We stopped for lunch and we carried on and I listened to music until we got there and as soon we got there we went straight to our rooms and put everything where we wanted it to go and we left our room to go and play on the field for a while.

The best part of the trip was the laser show because it would put images on the water and make a story out of it and it started like a beautiful story with ballerinas and then after a while it went bad. Evil ro-bo bugs started to attack the light people and then they started to fight back and then fireworks went off to show that they had won and all the machines turned into flowers. It was over a lake in Futuroscope at night and we didn’t get back till 11:00pm.

Callum Foster (7G) has written this report:

Day 2: waking up in the morning after my first night in France. We all woke and then the teacher was knocking on the door to tell us to get up. After breakfast, we all went to Futroscope for the day, a theme park with lots of rides. We went off in a group of 6. We went on all the rides and my best ride was dancing with the Robots: it was so much fun, we could pick levels up to 3 and my friend knows I don’t like rides so he picked level 3. After that I loved the ride. I wish there was a level 6. In the evening we went to the laser show and I liked it because the lasers were on the water and there were really cool special effects.

Day 3: our teacher waking us up once again, getting ready to go to the town Bordeaux and the trip on the coach was 2 hours - that was really long. When we got there, I was excited because I had never been to a French town and it looked beautiful and I bought a few things for my mum and dad. In the town I spent 20 Euros because I thought there were lots of good things there.

Day 4: we went to La Rochelle to visit the town and that was nice as well. My friend Harry bought a baguette, which he ate in half hour  although the bread was massive. We walked around the town a bit and then went to the aquarium and we saw lots of fish and sharks. They were cool and the shark was bigger than me.  

 And Kirby West (7G) writes about his trip:

My time in France was great, we had a laser show and we went to an aquarium and then we went to La Rochelle. The laser show was great: there were robots, smoke jets, water jets and fireworks. It lasted for an hour. After that I helped Miss Merle check the rooms.

Later that day we went to Futuroscope and spent the day there. The rides were all free and I went  to the bikes on the water and spent 10 minutes on there and then we went to a café with water jets outside. Me and James went to play on the water jets and got soaking wet and we had to dry off before we went on a ride.

Auf Wiedersehen im Oktober! German exchange leave Tomlinscote

After ten fun-filled days of making new friends and finding out about one another's culture, the first leg of the German exchange has come to an end. The Germans had a fantastic time over here, enjoying every minute of it. They didn't want to go home and their partners didn't want to see them leave, judging by the hugs and tears when it was time for good-byes today before the coach left for the airport.
The great consolation, however, is that they will see one another again in Oktober for the second part of the exchange, when we travel to Wendlingen near Stuttgart.

Did you take part? Write a comment below to tell us what you think (in German or English!)

Now it's easier to tell them apart: The Germans are wearing the 'I love London' uniform....

Vielen Dank an Herrn König und Frau Sailer for bringing our guests over here!

Auf Wiedersehen!

More Fantastique French Work with Storybird!!

As promised, here are more little books produced by Madame Tsang's Year 9 class.

Aren't they amazing???

Have a look through all the books to appreciate the excellent language and lovely content!
Very well done to all students!

Please leave a comment - I'm sure the authors would appreciate your feedback!

German Exchange Partners at Tomlinscote

Guten Tag! to our 27 German exchange students who are currently staying with their partners enjoying the uncharacteristic British summer sun. Our students and their families have been making them feel welcome in their homes. The visitors have experienced school life at Tomlinscote, marvelling at our school uniforms and interactive whiteboards (in Germany, there are still black boards in class rooms!). They attended a variety of lessons, where our students could try out their language skills on them.
Over the last few days, they have also been to London for sightseeing, shopping and Madame Tussaud's, and went punting in Oxford (don't fall in the water!).

Today, Tomlinscote students joined their guests on a trip to visit the Houses of Parliament and a flight with the London Eye, enjoying the fabulous view over the capital.
Here are some pictures from the trip. Without the school uniforms, I bet you can't tell the difference between English and German youngsters....

The German students learn all about London sights in school...

..so they were already familiar with Trafalgar Square and the London Eye

in a London Eye pod

Inside the Houses of Parliament

International enjoyment of the London sun ...although some seem to have forgotten their trousers at home...

Fantastic French work!!

Check out this amazing French book from Phoebe Johnson in 9Y!

Madame Tsang has once again got her kids to produce excellent language and stunning presentation by using cutting edge technology. Looking forward to publishing more in this space!

MFL songs: French: Maître Gims - Bella

Here is a song from the French charts: Will.i.am meets Spanish bull fight.
Maître Gims is singing about the beautiful and mesmerising 'Bella'.

MFL songs: German: Wise Guys: Jetzt ist Sommer

Here is a song for you by a German a capella band about how 'summer' is just a matter of the right attitude. While most people are still nursing their sunburns from last weekend, it's grey and rainy yet again. Maybe we can learn from the 'Wise Guys': "Sommer ist was in deinem Kopf passiert" - summer is something that happens in your head...

Apologies for one incident of bad language - is your knowledge of German good enough to spot it?