Notizie Italiane

Buongiorno a tutti! 

Well done to our Italian leaders, Violet and Elizabeth, who have settled into their roles very well, discussing all things Italian during their meeting times with the Italian teachers. One of their responsibilities is to choose an Italian functional word and introduce this to the school during the assembly.  All classes are encouraged to use this word or phrase as much as possible during the following two weeks, with the winning class receiving the ITALIA shield (pictured below) to display in their classroom. For the upcoming fortnight, the word to practise is Prego (You're welcome), which follows on perfectly from the previous word chosen: Grazie (Thank you)!  

New for this year, Supported Italian classes with Signorina Liv (previously in classrooms) are held in our dedicated Italian room, giving students twice weekly exposure to this rich language-learning environment. Over the past few weeks, we have been working towards a whole school birthday calendar which is now on display in the Italian room.  We have been comparing the way we express birthdays and ages in Italian compared to English, for example to say: “I am seven years old” in Italian is Ho sette anni, literally, “I have seven years.” This builds student understanding that words and meanings do not always correspond across languages and direct translations are not always possible.  

Grazie,  

Signora Chesterman