Italian Update

It’s been a busy end to the year for the Italian team with our annual Primary Schools Poetry Competition, meeting new friends from Cairns State High School, and celebrating the end of the year with our CLIL classes.

Italian Primary Schools Poetry Competition - 22nd November

We welcomed back students from Wales St, Preston, and Ivanhoe primary schools for an afternoon of poetry reciting, games, and of course pizza! All of the grade 5 and 6 students were nervous but excited to share their performances which they had worked so hard on. Our own 8G students ran the day by ushering, judging, and entertaining the younger students throughout the afternoon. It was wonderful to see so many students getting involved and dressing up, and we were blown away by the quality of performances we saw. By the end of the day, everyone felt like a winner and could hardly wait for next year’s event.

Pictured below: Andrej from 8G teaching primary school students how to play Scopa and the primary school students dressed up to recite their poems.

Cairns State High School - 29th November

Our senior Italian students jumped at the chance to collaborate with like-minded students studying Italian up in Cairns who had journeyed to Melbourne for a school trip. Just like our most committed Italian students, the students from Cairns are given the opportunity to learn through CLIL, an immersion-style learning experience that teaches students subjects other than Languages using that target language instead of English. The Year 10s rehearsed and performed role-plays like those we use in our Performing Arts CLIL classes, the Year 9s showed off how they use drawings to memorise texts written in Italian as a study technique, and the Year 11s gave a memorable tour of the school through an Amazing Race challenge. It was a rewarding experience for all involved, and especially inspiring to hear spontaneous conversations happening (some in Italian) between the two schools’ students!

Pictured below: Damian from Year 10 performing with Cairns students, a group photo with student helpers Christian, Luke, Damian, Will, and Xenon, and THS 9G immersion students interacting with CSHS students in the classroom.

8G Italian Immersion Celebration - 4th December

The Year 8 Immersion students have had an intense year of excursions, classroom experiments, and interdisciplinary learning. One of the highlights has been being able to combine learning across curriculum areas of Languages, Humanities, and the Arts. This culminated in a much-anticipated celebration of cibo di strada or ‘street food’ on Monday as students shared their business ideas, sampled each other's dietary-requirement friendly foods, and enjoyed the company of classmates with whom they have built a sense of community through shared challenges and triumphs this year. Students had worked together in small groups to design and market a street-food business and loved being able to create and share their delicious ethical product with their class, all the while filming and editing their cooking process! All of the dishes served were impressive, but some standouts were the vegetarian ravioli and gluten-free cheesecake offered. Special thanks to Jasmine, Dana, and Adriana from 9G who helped with setting up and running the event.

Pictured below: Putting the finishing touches on the displays, students choosing yummy foods to sample, Milla and Belinda enjoying their selections, Josh and Achilles with their standout ravioli dish!