Voorschoten – The British School in The Netherlands heeft een nieuwe directeur en CEO: Kieran Earley. Vanmorgen opende hij de jaarlijkse Language Village op de school in Voorschoten.

Vandaag wordt in heel Europa aandacht besteed aan vreemde talen. De British School in The Netherlands organiseerde ter gelegenheid hiervan jaarlijks het Language Village. Een unieke samenwerking tussen de school en zijn internationale vertegenwoordigers.

De aula in de school was getransformeerd naar een talendorp met de volgende talen: Vlaams/Nederlands, Nederlandse gebarentaal, Engels, Frans, Duits, Grieks, Italiaans, Portugees, Romeins, Russisch, Pools en Spaans.

De leerlingen en hun bezoekers waaronder de Fortgensschool en basisschool De Vos bezochten de dorpen met behulp van een wegwijzer. Ook deden zij korte rollenspellen gebaseerd op de verschillende wereldtalen. Zij ontvingen in ruil voor hun inzet een visum in hun paspoort. Met de visa mochten ze een lekkere specialiteit uitkiezen.  

Het language village wordt al jaren georganiseerd door de Franse lerares Chantal Rieutort-Louis van de BSN. “Dit is gewoon de beste manier om de verschillende talen die op de British School worden gesproken ook daadwerkelijk te vieren. De BSN wil hiermee ook de Nederlandse studenten laten inzien hoe belangrijk het is om verschillende talen te beheersen‘.”                

Language Villae is mede mogelijk gemaakt dankzij vertegenwoordigers van de BSN, het Europees Octrooibureau en Raad van Europa.

BSN’s New Principal will opened the Language Village at the Senior School
 
Thursday 1 October saw The British School in The Netherlands (BSN) celebrate the European Day of Languages (EDL) with its own Language Village.  This year, the school was delighted to have their new Chief Executive and Principal, Kieran Earley to open the celebrations by cutting the ribbon and welcoming students, staff and guests to try their hand at another language.

The BSN Senior School was transformed into a truly global village representing an array of European languages; Dutch/Flemish, French, German, Italian, Greek, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, English, Polish and Danish languages and Romanian. Throughout the day, students armed with a guide book and ‘passports’, visited the Village and took part in a number of simple role-play tasks using phrases from each country and put into practice what they have learned during their language lessons.  In exchange for their efforts, students were rewarded with a visa in their EDL passports and a treat associated with the culture they had ‘visited’.  The BSN welcomed students from the Noordwijkseschool, De Vos and Fortgensschool who joined BSN students to explore the many languages being showcased at the Language Village.   

As Madame Chantal Rieutort-Louis, Language Teacher and Co-ordinator of the BSN Language Village explains; “this is such a great way for the BSN to celebrate the number of languages spoken within the school and to join students from the Dutch community to demonstrate how languages take you further.”

Alexandra Skar, the Deputy Chair of Governors from the Noordwijkseschool said; “visiting The BSN Language Village is a great way for us to teach our Dutch students about internationalisation – they can see all these different languages and cultures which are part of the BSN first hand.”

Many thanks must go to the BSN’s International Representatives, who harness the energy and enthusiasm of their communities to create the Language Village and we are grateful to the European Patent Office and the Council of Europe for their continued support.