Junior School pupils spent an afternoon celebrating language and culture last week, at the festivities for the United Nations International Chinese Language Day.
As the host venue for this event, Highgate Junior School was pleased to welcome Ministers from the Chinese Embassy along with workshop practitioners who presented an array of activities to around 130 Year 6 children. Under the theme, ‘Chinese: Sparkling Colourful Dreams’, pupils explored patterns and colours from traditional Chinese Culture, taking part in interactive workshops in martial arts, dance, plate painting, origami and handicrafts.
“The Chinese Language Day event was amazing because we got to do loads of fun activities such as Chinese Dancing and bookmark making. I loved watching my friends and Miss Jani trying on traditional Chinese clothing and seeing the AI Robot do its spin kick!” said Zac in Y6.
Juliette added, “I thought it was super fun to learn about the Chinese culture which is something I had not heard much about before that day. My favourite part was making the Chinese hairpins because it was creative, and I love wearing it!”
Highgate places modern language learning at the heart of its curriculum, encouraging pupils to be curious about world cultures, and to see language as a doorway to understanding and friendship.
As one of the early adopters of the WoLLoW language curriculum – standing for World of Languages and Languages of the World – Junior School pupils are taught to understand the links and patterns between languages and to see them in the context of other topics of study, ready for their future studies at the Senior School and beyond. In Year 7, all our pupils study French alongside a classical language, Latin. They are also asked to choose one other language from the four additional options on offer: German, Mandarin, Russian or Spanish, all of which have full pathways through both GCSE and A level.
Philippa Studd, Principal of the Junior School, explains: “Learning language is more than learning words. It’s about people and history, and the way language drives and supports connection and belonging. By offering a culturally diverse programme that lays the foundations of how to be a successful linguist, pupils build their confidence and aspirations for future study.”
Click here to find out more about the Junior School Language programme: https://www.highgateschool.org.uk/highgate-journal/#issue5-28
