LANGUAGES
AN INTRODUCTION OF OUR WONDERFUL LANGUAGES TEACHING TEAM
Bonjour! My name is Marion Petitqueux but students call me Madame M. Born in Paris, I've spent half of my life in different parts of France and New Caledonia and the other half here in Australia. I studied English and Spanish in high school and university. I love teaching French and sharing fun facts about French culture. This year I teach Year 7 and Year 11 French at McKinnon Road Campus. À bientôt!
Marion Petitqueux
¡Hola! My name is Mr Atchison and I am a Year 7 Spanish teacher this year. I am also learning French, after having studied it at school and university, and I also teach English (I love to read!)
Liam Atchison
Bonjour! My name is Mme Mullane, I learnt French at school and then university, and it has followed me on multiple trips to France and also New Caledonia. I mostly teach Maths, but French was always my favourite subject at school (don’t tell my maths students!).
Sarah Mullane
Salut, Hola, Hallo! I’m teaching Year 10 French this year. I grew up learning French from my Mum, who learned French in Zimbabwe. At school I studied German and French, then German at university, after which I lived in Austria and other parts of Europe. Eventually I settled in Paris for several years! I really enjoy inspiring students in their multilingualism and communicating across cultures.
Melinda Howard
Madame Antal is our longest-serving member of the McKinnon French team. She will be familiar to many of our McKinnon parents.
Ludmila Antal
Bonjour, my name is Madame Nonaka and this year I am teaching Year 7 and 12 French at McKinnon Road campus. I speak three languages and am a passionate language learner - I am currently self-teaching Korean! Enchantée.
Miku Nonaka
Bonjour! Growing up in a family that only spoke English, I only started learning French in Year 7. Ever since then, and after studying through high school, university and living in France, I continue to love learning French. As a teacher, I’m proud that I get to share that excitement for learning with my students.
Kellie Dickson
¡Hola a tod@s! Soy Irene Gómez, Year 7, 10, and 11 Spanish teacher. I’m originally from Madrid, Spain, but I’ve been calling Melbourne home since 2011. What I enjoy most is soaking up the summer vibes while sharing a delicious paella with family and friends... and, of course, a siesta after lunch!
Irene Gomez
I'm lucky enough to have been learning German since I was in Year 8 and still find it fascinating how some skill in a second language (or third!) opens up an additional world for you! I've had fun experiencing German as a bridge between cultures, having encounters with people in South America and in remote parts of Europe who couldn't speak English but knew enough German to help me out! Through travel I've also enjoyed getting some basic communication happening in Spanish, in Indonesian and in a Scandinavian language. And I love seeing and hearing students speak sentences that they've come up with on the spur of the moment, in our classrooms and on our exchange program in Germany. As it says in the Sixt advertisement: "Das ist good!"
David Nutting
Hallo! Konnichiwa! Bonjour! Although of German heritage, my initial language of choice at school was French. I added German in Year 9 but swapped into Japanese at University. I am now trying to learn Greek. I have been teaching languages for over 30 years in primary and secondary schools in Tasmania and Victoria, and I am loving my Year 8 and 9 German classes this year.
Karin Paal
Hallo! I am an avid Year 7 German teacher, who began to learn German in Year 7 and never stopped! I also teach Year 7 English, but my first language was Hebrew. I began learning English at the age of eight. If I had time, I would love to learn a few more languages.
Debbie Laskaridis
Bonjour/Hola!
Je m’appelle Aurianne. I grew up in the South of France, where I learnt English, Spanish and Japanese at school! Outside of school, I enjoy skiing, figure skating and baking.
Aurianne Brandely
Hola! My name is Ana and I am from Madrid, Spain. I have been teaching languages - French and Spanish - and humanities for more than a decade and I love it! I love travelling and reading is my passion. Come and say hello at East Campus!
Ana Gomez
Hola/Bonjour! My name is Madeleine, I am half Australian & half Belgian. This will be my third year teaching French and Spanish at East. I'm looking forward to it!
Madeleine Remont
¡Hola! I’m señor Ospina León. I’m from Colombia where we speak Spanish although I speak Japanese at home now 🙂 I studied French and Chinese when I was at school so you can also speak to me in those or teach me some words in your home language 😀
Juan Ospina Leon
Bonjour! I grew up in Tasmania in a very VERY English-speaking environment and didn’t start learning a second language until Year 7, when I started learning French. My teacher, Mrs Bienefeldt, made me love the language. I have lived in Montpellier, Prague and Hong Kong. In addition to French, I know some Italian, and a little bit of Spanish. I understand and can speak a smattering of several languages. At university I majored in English literature as well as French, and I am a lover of Shakespeare. I also have a Masters in Applied Linguistics. I am a teacher of English, EFL and EAL as well as French - because I love words.
Jenny Lynd
STARTING OUT IN LANGUAGES - SOME WORDS FROM OUR YEAR 7 COHORT
Learning French at McKinnon Secondary College has been a really enjoyable experience for me so far this year. I’m in Year 7 and had never learnt French before, so at first it felt new and a bit challenging. In class, we learn using a series of slides that help us understand a new phrase or topic step by step, and we also write in our books to practise the new words and sentences. The classroom environment is relaxed and supportive, which makes it easier to try without worrying about making mistakes. My teacher, Madame M, is always helpful and kind, and she often makes jokes that make us laugh when we feel frustrated. Because of this positive environment, learning French at McKinnon Secondary College has been a great experience so far! Thanks a bunch.
Naavya Gupta, Year 7
Hello, my name is Isla.
This is my first year at McKinnon Secondary College. At my primary school we were taught by youtube videos to sign Auslan. Therefore, having a language teacher live and in person is new for me and so far, Madam Antal (My French teacher) is a much, much better teacher than youtube! At home I speak English, but I've always longed to learn another language, and since my mother also speaks French, it's even better!
Last year I went traveling around Europe with my family. We went to many countries including France. It would have been so awesome to have had all this knowledge that I now have from my classes in French. Anyway, every morning in France, I went down to the bakery (Pain Pain) next to our apartment. I greeted the staff with “bonjour”. It was awesome practice for me, and my wonderful reward was a fresh baguette with butter on it for breakfast. Learning is not memorising but how you apply it to the real world so I can't wait until I am able to speak fluent French!
Isla Scroggie, Year 7
My first experiences with learning Spanish
When I started my first Spanish class, I knew that this class would be so different to all my others, but in a good way. I was super excited and couldn't wait for the lessons to come, I knew I had chosen the right language for me. I chose Spanish as my language to learn in school because it just felt right, so I listened to my gut and I know I have made the right decision.
When the time came to do the learning task, I got really nervous and scared that I was going to mess up, but my teacher was super supportive and helped me a lot. She made it super easy for me to finish the learning task, and now I'm not scared for the next one. She helped me and my peers by showing us super good platforms to help us prepare and understand the language and task.
Overall, my Spanish lessons have really helped me improve over the term and my understanding has expanded by a lot. I look forward to continuing learning Spanish next term and keep on improving. I’m not scared to approach learning tasks anymore, I can speak more fluently and I enjoy learning Spanish.
Sofia Kljajic, Year 7
NEW LANGUAGE LEADERS
At East campus, we have four Year 9 leaders: Alon Elboher, Shahar Ben-Meir, Jeremy Israel and Zimo Deng who have continued in their role this year.
We have just held interviews for new leaders, and we have added the following students to the team: Madonna Nazeer, Sakina Abedi, Anna Chiu, Param Joshi, Eva Munro, Felix Nutting, William Thompson, Anjali Parthasarathy, Jai Kumar, Kiera Tong, Arielle Kawalsky, Aryana Kularathne and Daniel Craddock. It is a great year! We are very excited to see what great activities they run this year for the newly renamed Languages and Culture Club.
McKinnon Road’s leaders are busy planning under the direction of Mr Atchison. We will be hearing from them throughout the year.
EVENTS ON THE LANGUAGES CALENDAR
Our Years 9, 10, 11 and 12 French students all had the opportunity to attend the Alliance Francaise Film Festival this term, and the German and Spanish Film Festivals are coming up.
Planning is well underway for the Education Perfect World Championships. 100 or so French students are enrolled in the Berthe Mouchette Competition; and about 75 French students have connected with a pen pal from our sister school in New Caledonia. The German pen pals start next term. The Year 9 Languages Expo is running as usual at East in term 2 as well.
OVERSEAS TRIPS
It is unfortunate that once again, world affairs have impacted our travel plans. COVID, unrest in New Caledonia and now the Middle East.
Please understand that our staff put in many many hours of work behind the scenes and are now having to invest considerable time undoing the work. The German exchange students are still scheduled to visit later this year, and staff are looking at rescheduling the postponed trips.
Planning continues for the trips to New Caledonia (Year 9 - September) and France (Year 10 - December).
PRESENTATION AT THE ANNUAL LANGUAGE TEACHERS OF VICTORIA CONFERENCE - DECEMBER 2025
Madeleine Remont, one of our French and Spanish teachers, presented the findings of her action research project at the LTV Conference at the end of last year.
Jennifer Lynd
Languages Learning Area Manager