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Language College
News
Coombe International!
On Monday the 25th September Coombe held its annual Languages Week with a host of different activities for pupils to get involved in.
Year 7 became international spies for the week and had to find out what different languages were spoken around the school, which really helped pupils to see the different languages spoken in our community. They also took part in a French Boules competition during lunch time which was extremely well attended.
Year 8 were very artistic in their look at different countries, they had the chance to do some French food tasting, which was enjoyed by all, and were involved in some Spanish flamenco dancing.
Year 9 had the opportunity to take taster lessons in a whole array of different languages that most had never spoken before, for example Swedish, Chinese and Japanese.
Year 10 took part in ‘Languages at Work’ which was about how languages can help with certain careers and increase your potential earnings in particular jobs.
Pupils could also get involved in a number of events at lunch time for example Korean Cooking Club, Chinese Calligraphy and the Active Global Quiz! Congratulations to Mercury 7, winners of the Boules Competition (Venus 7 runners-up); to Venus 10, winners of the Active Tutorial Global Quiz (Neptune 11 runners-up); and to Yvette Lawrenson, Ella MacColl and Lucy Smith who were the winners of the Year 7 International Spies Competition.
Coombe Girls’ School has been a Specialist Language School for many years now and is working hard to show pupils that learning about different cultures from around the world can be fun and interesting. Ms Susanne Klinker, Head of Languages was really happy with the pupil involvement ‘Student awareness of international issues has really been stimulated’.
Linguashow!
Yet again, Year 8 produced some superb pieces of music, dance and theatre for the annual Year 8 Performance in Languages Competition. First Prize was awarded to a highly entertaining piece of Spanish theatre. Congratulations to all participants.
  
'KingSing' winners!
Congratulations to year 5 pupils from The Mount Primary School who were winners of the RBK 'KingSing' competition with their German entry of 'Krokodil song'. The winning school now recieves language resources, so well done to Lauren Hardwick, Agata Lesniewska, Zoe Wolff, Zoe Davis, Anijet Chaudry and Zahra El-Sekaifi!
Information Evening for the new Korean IGCSE.
At Coombe Girls' School, Wed 5th July 2006, 6.30-7.30pm.
Presentation by Cambridge International Examinations and the Korean Embassy to cover the content and organisation of the new qualification.
All members of the community welcome.
German shoot out challenge!
To mark the start of the Football World Cup, the German Goethe Institute in London held a shoot out.
Coombe Boys and Girls participated with great success in our tournament day last October so much so that we were invited to the attend the final 'Shoot-out challenge' in London on the 7th June. 3 Coombe Boys (yr 8) and and 2 Coombe Girls (yr 9) represented us well at the day, with Jack Buffoni even making it into the final round of the final, well done!!
Apart from goal shots, the students had the chance to participate in football-related taster lessons of German, they received a fabulous lunch and all participants were given a ‘goodie bag’. And even though we didn’t manage to win the top prize, we all had a great time - Dankeschön, Goethe Institut!
S. Klinker, Head of German
MFL Training Day for Goldsmiths PGCE students.
MFL PGCE students from Goldsmiths university came to Coombe Girls' School on 15th June for training sessions on MFL in the Primary School, Teaching at A level and Assessment for learning. Please click below for resources.
Teaching A level French.
Teaching an in depth topic at A level German.
A level essay writing
Coursework guidance
Kursarbeit Aufsatzplan
Assessment for Learning.
Self evaluation Report.
KS5 Progress monitoring.
Yr 8 Objective Summary
MFL at KS2
Book Week Competition Winners 2006
Congratulations! Félicitations! ¡Enhorabuena! Herzlichen Glückwunsch!
Year 7 International Book Cover Design:First Prize winner; 
1st Joanna Robertson
2nd Anjni Thakar
Year 8 Match the Titles to Foreign Authors Competition
1st Jade Fielden Pl 8
2nd Amy House Ma 8
Year 9 Translate the Book Titles Competition
1st Sarah Dyson Pl 9
2nd Heather Rolfe Ma 9
Year 10 Verse Reading Competition
French 1st Aswila Khan Ve 10
German 1st Amna Ghauri Ne 10
Spanish 1st Safa Khedairi Ne 10
Can you help? Pourriez-vous aider? Können Sie helfen? ¿Puede ayudar?
In September, we will be seeking redesignation for Languages Specialist School Status. Our school-based and community projects have been highly praised by Ofsted and we intend to continue these, but we are also looking to add a greater vocational dimension. If your business could benefit from foreign language tuition organised by us (including Korean) or if you are interested in a partnership project with our students, we would love to hear from you or your contacts. (Contact Mr Power: npower1@rbksch.org
 Language College Autumn 2005 newsletter
Language College Spring 2006 newsletter
Student of the month
Click here for the student of the month in each year group, voted by the MFL teaching staff! A postcard will be sent home to each student of the month to let everyone know of their success!
Work Experience in Spain, March 2006
The Language College subsidised 12 Sixth Formers for a one week work placement in Córdoba. The students were able to live with a Spanish family to practise their language skills 24 hours a day. Although very tiring, this was a fantastic way to prepare for exams and see the real Spain.
Une journée à Paris (par les étudiantes de seconde)
Le 1er mars, nous sommes allées à Paris en Eurostar. A Paris, nous avons pris le métro et nous avons fait un petit tour de Châtelet au Louvre, puis vers la Tour Eiffel. Après, nous avons fait du lèche-vitrines. On a pris aussi le bateau sur la Seine où on a écouté de la musique française. C’était vraiment super car on a vu tous les monuments principaux de la capitale
et on a vu Dev de «Coronation Street»! On s’est vachement bien amusé. Mais on a eu un problème avec les tickets de métro de Amber et Hyun-Young. On a dû payer une amende de 50 euros. Quelle horreur!!
Bonjour la France!
Camelia Gamee and Natalie James write:
“44 lucky students from Year 7 visited Boulogne on 17th March. Firstly, we went to a modern Sea Life centre called Nausicaa, where we met sea creatures that we hoped to never see in the wild; sharks, piranhas and alligators! Afterwards, we visited the castle and old town quarter, where we carried out language tasks and
spent every last euro we had. We all had great fun, spoke lots of French and learnt many new things about France.”
23-24th March, German Partner School Visit
Our German partner students write:
“The first thing we noticed was that we didn’t have to get up as early as we do in Germany – great! Then we saw the uniforms, which was surprising, but impressive. We noticed that the school is very multicultural and international. It was interesting to see so many different nationalities forming a solid community. During the lessons we were excited by all the technology like the “active boards”. We like the cafeteria a lot and know we won’t starve! It’s only our second day at Coombe, but we already feel very at home and look forward to the next few days.”
(Alina, Andira, Nina,Janina, Jasmin, Wiebke,Fatma, Nils, Swana, Anna-Katharina,Carina, Michaela)
Learning through Drama
Lydia Ryan (Venus 9) writes:
“Year 9 students enjoyed watching a Spanish play on Thursday 16th March. ‘Mi Primera Cita’ (My First Date) was about a boy and girl who really wanted to go out with each other, but neither could make the first move. Finally, Carlos called Maria and asked her out on a date…
It was great fun to watch, and parts of the play were very funny. It was extremely visual with a lot of props, so it was easy to follow. It was an excellent experience and developed our language skills immensely.”
Teachers Visit Coombe
In February, 4 language assistants from King’s College, Wimbledon came to share ideas with our assistants on building students’ confidence in speaking. It was also interesting to hear about the International Baccalaureate at King’s. In March, 2 Maths teachers from our partner school in Seville, Spain came to work shadow in our Maths department. They were very impressed with Coombe students’ work and have taken away lots of ideas for teaching in Spain. We hope to develop this link in the future.
26th January, French Partner School Visit
Mrs Palfrey’s Year 7 French class writes:
“49 French students from Collège Nicholas Appert came to visit Coombe for two days. They took part in lessons, a treasure hunt around school and interviews in French and English. We treated them to typical English food such as jelly, sliced bread and marmite, which for some reason the students found most unappetizing …
However, we are glad to report that our French partners left Coombe with positive reports about our school and students at Coombe look forward to visiting their school this summer.”
Chinese New Year
Visit by the European Theatre Company: Monday 14th November
 On Monday 14th November Coombe Girls School invited pupils from Coombe Hill Junior School, the Mount and Latchmere Primary School to attend a private exhibition of French Art touring the country. As part of a new interactive French show for primary learners performed by the European Theatre Company, pupils were involved in a personalized view of the exhibition in which they learnt about French art and in particular the work of Rodin. They were lucky enough to meet his famous statue who was bought to life before their very eyes and pupils made efforts to copy the sculptures with their own bodies and in clay as part of the show.
The pupils and the teachers fully enjoyed the performance and we hope this will encourage their progress in languages at KS2.
German Football Day: Thursday October 6
German and Football were celebrated on this fun day, part of a series of events co-ordinated by the Goethe Institut London to mark Germany’s hosting of the Football World Cup 2006.
We had outside speakers from the Goethe Institut, and 35 year 9 boys from Coombe Boys’ School also attended the day.
Year 7 and year 10 German students participated in a ‘virtual journey’ through Germany in ICT based workshops, year 9 students attended a careers talk about employment opportunities for German students, and sixth form students assisted in the co-ordination of the entire event. While the workshops and talks went very well, the undoubted highlight of the day was the shoot-out activity held in conjunction with the PE department on the Tennis courts, where both students and teachers tried their luck at target shooting during PE lessons and at lunchtime. Just check out the pictures to see how much fun was had!
Visit of 6th form students from Oldenburg: Monday October 10
Oldenburg is Kingston’s partner town, and over the past year, the German Department at Coombe has begun to build up links with the Herbartgymnasium, a grammar school in this north German town. During our German Exchange trip to Norderney, a group of Coombe students visited Oldenburg and we were warmly welcomed by students and teachers of the school. Now it was our turn to return the favour, when a group of 18 6th form students dropped in on Coombe during their study trip to London. The Germans were very interested in getting to know an English school, and they attended lessons with our German AS and A-Level classes. In these sessions, the two groups learned a lot from each other, comparing the school systems and lifestyles in the two countries, and generally getting to try out their respective learned languages as the rooms were buzzing with German and English. The German group had even prepared a whole presentation about German Music for us, and they had us all singing together!
We look forward to further building on this link in the future, as such connections with ‘real young Germans’ are a great way to bring the subject to life.
Visit of German Headmasters to Coombe (Date TBA)
A delegation of Headmasters from German Grammar schools came to visit Coombe while attending their annual Conference at the German School in Richmond. As German educational policy is currently undergoing some major changes, they were very keen to get to know a British school and learn about our school system here. The group were hosted by Mr Power, Head of Languages. Besides further meetings with Mrs Buchanan to talk about the pastoral system at our school, the group also met for coffee and chat with Coombe’s A-Level German students, giving our students another excellent opportunity to practice their German.
Exam results
2005 has seen an outstanding year of results in languages. Pupils had great success at GCSE and A level in French, German, Spanish, Polish, Italian, Portuguese, Arabic, Turkish, Tamil, Hindi, Punjabi, Gujarati, Dutch, Russian and Chinese. Particular congratulations must go to Laura Brazier who achieved A* in French, Spanish and Italian GCSE and A at AS level French. Sarah Douglas, Bethan Hacche, Rachel Pardy, Hania Ghauri, Ella Westby, Anastassia Chadrina, Sara Hunton and Hannah Walker must also be congratulated for achieving ‘A*’ in 2 modern foreign languages.
Language department events
The summer term was brimming with a variety of language events.
The success of the previous two home stay trips to Spain was echoed this year when 23 students and 3 teachers spent a week in Barcelona, attending a Spanish school and visiting the sights of the city.
 18 students accompanied by 2 staff participated in the German exchange, staying with host families on the small German island of Norderney. They attended school and activities included local visits, cycling tours and a taster windsurfing lesson. The German group are already planning the return visit for March 2006.
The year 8 language performance competitions demonstrated the acting, entertaining and language skills of several pupils and special commendation must go to Sian MaCarty Cole, Imogen Firth, Hannah Ilett, Michelle Ingham, Georgia Lavender, Rachel Mattick, Angela Thompson and Sophie Webb for some superb performances.
Book week events throughout the school were a huge success and congratulations to Magdalene Zimmicki in French, Zoya Imran in German and Alaa Eltom in Spanish for their success in the year 10 poetry reading competition. Aja Ropret-Knez in Year 9 won the translation competition, Rosie Grimwood from year 8 managed to match the most titles to foreign authors and Suganya Sivagnanam from year 7 was the most creative on her design of a book cover.
The MFL department hosted a number of training days including a French crash course for local primary school teachers and a day of support and advice for 36 beginner teachers from Goldsmiths University.
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