Gifted and Talented Languages Day
St Aubyns plays host to academically gifted children Saturday 28 November 2009On Thursday 27th November St Aubyns welcomed pupils from other local schools for one of the regular Gifted and Talented workshops that have recently been established. The aim of these days is to stretch academically more able children by going 'off curiculum' and helping to interact with similarly able children from other schools. This day was aimed at Years 5 and 6; twelve children from St Aubyns were joined by a group from Our Lady of Lourdes Primary School in Rottingdean and The Fold School in Hove.
The programme for the day started with the children meeting each other and talking about the languages which they had already experienced. Two groups then alternated between Mandarin Chinese and Ancient Greek, working hard at each language for an hour. Mrs Zhao from Brighton College led the Mandarin sessions and took the children through a range of vocabulary and phrases. Mr Hitchings, Headmaster of St Aubyns, led the Ancient Greek sessions, starting with the alphabet taught through song and Greek mythology and moving onto simple phrases and some work on English derivations from Greek words.
All the children worked with enthusiasm and at the end of the morning shared some of the lessons about language learning that they were able to take away. Above all, the children were instilled with the confidence to approach new languages in the future realising how this will equip them for the challenges of the modern world.