Languages Faculty News
Global Connections
Lucie Dickens, Academic Dean of Languages
Throughout Covid-19, Kilvington students remained in contact with our partner schools, either through a penpal program as part of our French classes, or through an exchange of students’ work in Japanese.
Last year, we published in In The Know some of our partner schools students’ reflections about their school experience in 2020 in China, France and Japan.
More recently, it was so pleasing to see Kilvington students’ reflections being published in the Todorki High School Newseletter in Tokyo, Japan.
French Embassy competition - Year 6 French students wins 2nd Prize!
As part of the Key Assessment Topic for Year 6 French this term, students learnt and researched a French speaking country. They practised and learnt set structures and vocabulary to build the content for their video presentation.
Congratulations to Archie Fifoot, Stefani Andriopoulos and Sinclair McClimont who created their video presentation on the Comoros Islands (north east of Madagascar) and received 2nd Prize in the French speaking countries competition organised by the French Embassy, The Forum de la Francophonie and the Association of French Teachers in Victoria.
Francophonie week (17-25 March) provides an opportunity to celebrate the French language in all its diversity and recognise that is spoken by more than 270 million people across five continents.
These students will receive their prize at a special award ceremony at the French Consulate in June.
Junior French Club
Chloe Bebber, Junior Languages Leader
In French Club we have been playing La Pétanque (game of balls), Jungle Speed and a French Language-based Escape room. Next, we will be preparing for the Alliance Française Berthe Mouchette (poetry competition) and make a little video tour of the School to show our partner school in France.
Personally, I think that French Club is a great place to have fun and make new friends. Thank you to Madame Mullins for offering this fantastic co-curricular activity every Monday at lunchtime.
Year 7 Cultural day
Year 7 students celebrated their studies of French and Japanese with a range of fun cultural activities: Taiko drumming, French pâtisserie, Kimono dressing, French drama workshop, European Handball game, poster competitions and Languages Assembly ... it was also a great way to celebrate Harmony Day and Francophonie week.
Thank you to Alex Verginis and Ewan Harrison for sharing their reflections as Year 7 French students.
Alex Verginis and Ewan Harrison, Year 7
On Friday 19 March we had a Cultural Day for all of the Year 7 students. It was a day all about languages (either Japanese or French) where we did different fun activities.
The cultural part of the day started off with making a poster ... 'On what?' I hear you ask. The posters were all about a chosen 'Francophone' country, which means a country where French is spoken. All the posters were very detailed and full of character. Some chose Vietnam while others chose Chad, Madagascar and Belgium. We were both in the same group and chose Canada.
Did you know that Canada has both French and English as its official languages, as well as being a one-time French colony? It was an enjoyable task, where we all got to learn a bit more about our chosen country. After we had the great fun of making our posters, it was time for the Languages Assembly.
Mr Charlton, some Year 12s and an assortment of teachers were all there to explain more about what cultural day was and to share their experiences.
It was extremely interesting to hear the Year 12s describe their experiences and to listen to some conversations spoken in French and Japanese. I don’t think many people understood it, but judging from the silent laughter that was coming from the Languages teachers, it was very funny.
Following the Assembly, we had lunch. I’m sure we were all glad to get outside (no matter how interesting the Assembly!) as we had been sitting down for half an hour. After we had lunch, we were split into three groups to do some activities.
The first activity was learning and playing European handball with Mr Troitzky. It was an enjoyable and engaging lesson, working with our teammates to score some goals! Cooking was also great.
We had a French cook come in and teach us how to make Madeleines de Commercy, which are a fluffy and rich dessert. The best part was that we got to take and eat four of those delicious cakes! This was an exceptionally amazing experience for us and our peers.
And finally, we had the drama lesson. This was an interactive lesson where we had a lady come in to do some games with us. Almost all of these games were designed to help us cope with failure, practise gratitude and so on. We also learnt a lot of French throughout it too, so that was a bonus.
Overall, it was an amazing end to an awesome week of school. We learnt a lot more about languages throughout the day, so we would just like to say a big thank you to everyone who made this day possible.
Years 10 to 11 French Film Festival excursion
On Monday 15 March, 46 students across Years 10 and 11 French classes attended the school screening of Moving On, as part of the French Film Festival held at the Como Palace cinema in South Yarra. Thank you to Diya Matthew in Year 10 French for sharing her reflection.
Diya Matthew, Year 10
Last Monday, the Years 10 and 11 French classes were given the opportunity to attend the annual Melbourne French Film Festival. We watched a film called Moving On; a powerful and poignant story that explored the themes of mental health and respectful relationships while exposing us to an authentic cultural setting in a high school in France.
Overall, it was an exciting and culturally enriching experience that had many of us in tears by the end.