Languages for a connected future: Celebrating voices, building bridges

Walking down our languages corridor feels like a journey around the world. The walls are full of flags representing the many nationalities in our school, and our “Where in the World?” The map is filled with the faces of pupils proudly showing their roots. Each term, we choose a country to celebrate, and the children from that country take the lead in an assembly that their parents and guardians are invited to join. We run themed quizzes, enjoy a special lunch from that country, and host small competitions linked to its language. Alongside this, we create a display board on the country with facts and key information, and the humanities and languages faculty prepares another display where each subject focuses on its own area of expertise – Geography, History, English, Languages, and RS – so that pupils see the country from many perspectives. These celebrations are not just colourful events; they are moments that build pride and connection, allowing children to feel seen and valued while their classmates discover something new.

The same spirit comes alive in our Languages Week each spring, which has become one of the highlights of our school calendar. It is a week filled with joy and creativity: bilingual football sessions, drama lessons performed in two languages, theatre visits, and even a session on the ancient Olympic Games. Our pupils also have the opportunity to step into the role of teacher, sharing their mother tongues with their classmates. One of the most beautiful examples was when a Year 7 boy taught a full lesson in Chinese to Year 6, and the excitement in the room was unforgettable. We link World Book Day with languages by reading stories in different languages during DEAR (Drop Everything And Read). Pupils in Reception begin French and in Year 5 start Spanish, but during Languages Week, everyone has a taste of Spanish through fun and playful lessons. Our catering team supports us with a wonderful international menu, and we bring the whole community together with competitions such as our trilingual spelling bee and a bake-off where pupils design cakes inspired by a country of their choice and cooking sessions in Spanish. The week ends with smiles, laughter, and a sense of how connected we all are through languages.

Beyond these celebrations, we make sure our pupils understand that language learning is also about building real bridges with the wider world. Our Year 5 and 6 Spanish pupils write letters to pupils in my old primary school in Spain, and through their pen pals, they discover that learning another language opens doors to friendships they might never have imagined. We run a biannual trip to France or Spain, depending on the language they are studying. Spending five days fully immersed in the culture and language allows them to live what they have been learning in real life, and those experiences stay with them for years to come. We also take pupils to Bede’s Senior School to participate in an open mic session where they can read poems and stories in the languages of their choice, and it is inspiring to see both our bilingual pupils and our keenest language learners sharing their voices so proudly. We also work cross-curricularly, taking part in competitions such as “poesíaert” with art and creating posters for the European Day of Languages under the theme “Languages open hearts, open minds.”

Every project, from recording New Year’s greetings in multiple languages to seeing a child explain their heritage in front of their peers, reinforces one simple truth: languages build empathy, inclusion, and intercultural understanding. Our school is diverse, and we want every pupil to feel celebrated in any shape or form. For me, that is what education is about – giving children the confidence to be proud of who they are, the tools to communicate across cultures, and the belief that by listening to many voices, we can build bridges to a more connected future.