By Mr Piesse, French Teacher & GDST Languages Trust Consultant

On World Book Day, linguists from Notting Hill & Ealing went to Sydenham High School to participate in the annual GDST Languages Festival, alongside their peers from Blackheath, Bromley, Croydon, Putney, Northampton, Sutton and Sydenham High Schools.

This year’s theme was ‘The Joy of Reading’, as part of the cross-GDST Reading for Pleasure Research Project, currently running in partnership with Reading University. Having heard from engaging keynote speaker Jorge Garriz, founder of Romancero Books, who shared his life journey from Barcelona to Bookshop owner (and a lockdown in between), girls split off into different groups, each with their own activity.

Year 7 became expert, multilingual spellers, Year 8’s tongues were twisted, Year 9 recited poetry with poise, whilst Year 10’s creativity and teamwork came to the fore, as they translated stimulus texts in French, German, Italian and Spanish into captivating 2-minute sketches.  The day was brilliantly co-led by the Year 11 Girl Reader Leaders (Maya M, Juliette B Ishita N, Zoe D) who perfectly punctuated the day with confident recitations of excerpts of their favourite pieces of literature in a foreign language. Their choices ranged from Prévert to Heinrich Hoffmann.

Although Notting Hill girls did not bring home any trophies this year, particular praise goes to Alexandra O D who acquitted herself brilliantly in the Spanish Spelling Bee and to Giuliana R, who stepped into the Girl Reader Leader role seamlessly to cover for absence.  Overall, the girls enjoyed an inspiring day and are grateful to Sydenham High and to the GDST for yet another successful Languages Festival! Thank you, too, to Mrs Prothero for accompanying the girls!