Pupils discover the power of language at school event

Year 5 children from the six Teesside schools in the Prince Regent Street Learning Trust came together at The Village Primary School, in Stockton, for the education partnership’s first Trust-wide Language Day.

Pupils learned more about writing and speaking languages from all over the world (Image: Chris Barron)

Shelley Collins, a teacher at Hartburn Primary School, organised the event. She said: “Exploring different languages from around the world gives the children a great sense of purpose and togetherness.

“We’ve intentionally put them in mixed groups so they’ve had to collaborate with children they don’t know, and really think about communication from the get-go.

“Children start off in lots of very different positions with language – they might have experience speaking a different language at home, for example. But what our Trust does very well is give everyone opportunities to excel, whatever their language background.”

Children learned how to write their names in other languages, including Thai (Image: Chris Barron)

Activities included learning names of body parts by singing ‘Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes’ in Spanish, learning about favourite Italian foods, writing in Japanese and Thai, and making folded paper fortune tellers – a common playground pastime that originated in China.

There were even some arts and crafts related to other cultures, including making Chinese paper fortune tellers (Image: Chris Barron)

Harry Austin, a Year 5 pupil from Wolviston Primary School, said: “Learning other languages means you can chat with people when you go on holiday. I do that because I know a bit of German.”

British Sign Language workshops demonstrated to pupils that speaking isn't the only way to communicate (Image: Chris Barron)

Children even learned how to communicate simple phrases non-verbally through British Sign Language.

Kader Academy teacher Daniel Kerr, who previously taught English as a Foreign Language in Japan, showed the children how to write in katakana - characters used to write Japanese.

“There are only about 10,000 different kanji characters to learn,” he laughed. “So I thought we should probably start them early!”

Teacher Daniel Kerr recalled his days teaching English in Japan to inspire the children (Image: Chris Barron)

Julia Armstrong, CEO of the Prince Regent Street Trust, said: “The academic, social, and professional benefits of learning a second language are immeasurable, so we’re keen to help raise the children’s aspirations at an early age, and show them the opportunities languages can bring.”