Yorkshire and the Humber

As part of the University of Huddersfield's involvement with Routes into Languages, Huddersfield student Oliver Reavell tells us about his experience of combining his passions for Music and Spanish in his degree programme.

Listen to Oliver explain how learning Spanish has added to his pleasure and appreciation of music and culture from Spain and the Spanish-speaking world.

Oliver is now taking a Master's by Research, and took a Music with a Modern Language BA for his first degree.

The University of Huddersfield's wider Routes programme includes working with schools and colleges to encourage pupils to continue their language in HE by inviting them into taster days, enrichment classes and competitions.

The School of Languages, Cultures and Societies hosted a full day of activities and workshops aimed at giving pupils an experience of studying languages at university. The day was part-funded by the Routes into Languages initiative.

Routes into Languages supported Howden School’s Japanese Day on 17th April 2015.

The sessions organised by Routes were part of a whole day of events arranged by the school to give pupils a real taste of Japan. A native Japanese speaker attended the event, giving students the opportunity to experience the language and culture first hand.

The children thoroughly enjoyed the experience, commenting that it is interesting to see how different cultures operate. One student said that “learning languages is fun and awesome”, which is something that we always love to hear!

62 students from 9 Yorkshire schools attended a German Film Day at the University of Leeds, funded jointly by the University of Leeds and Routes into Languages

The Year 11, 12 and 13 students spent the day studying Dennis Gansel’s film Die Welle. The programme was designed to deepen students’ understanding of the film, director and key themes (including how these link into the wider context of German Studies), while also allowing them to experience university-style teaching, and meet current students and staff from the German department.

As well as finding out about Die Welle, delegates also learned more about how to read a film and explored how Germany’s complex history is reflected on film. The sessions were led by a combination of academics and postgraduate research students.

The event was a great success, with the vast majority of attendees commenting that they would like to continue studying languages and/or go on to university.

It is hoped that the event will be repeated in 2016 and will continue to go from strength to strength!

Friday 27th March saw the final of the Regional Spelling Bee Competition for Yorkshire and The Humber take place at The University of Hull for the 4th year in a row. 97 school pupils in Year 7 from 26 different secondary schools from across Yorkshire attended the competition for what was to be a very inspiring day.

All 97 pupils had done exceedingly well to reach the regional final, beating their peers firstly in their class competitions and then becoming one of the final 4 winners from the overall school competition. The event celebrated the joys of learning a language and it was inspiring to see each competitor working so hard to remember and spell the 150 words in their chosen language, either Spanish, French or German.

The first round of the competition took place in the morning and after several tie-break situations, eventually the final four winners for each language succeeded in beating all the other contestants in their category. The afternoon saw the 4 winners in each language battle it out for their ranking of 1st, 2nd, 3rd or 4th place. The winners will go down to the National Finals in Cambridge at Anglia Ruskin University on Friday 3rd July to compete with other pupils from across the country and represent Yorkshire and The Humber.

The winning schools in the Spanish Competition were:

1st  place                               Hymers College

2nd place                               Dixons Kings Academy

3rd place                               Sheffield High School

4th place                               Sheffield High School

The winning schools in the German competition were:

1st place                                Beverley High School

2nd place                               The Crossley Heath School

3rd place                               Beverley High School

4th place                               Hymers College

And finally the winning schools in the French Competition were:

1st place                                Beverley High School

2nd place                               Wolfreton School

3rd place                               Beverley High School

4th place                               The North Halifax Grammar School

Some pupils commented: ‘I really enjoyed it and I wish I could do it again next year’, and one national finalist said: ‘I really enjoyed this competition and it really helps with languages! I can’t wait for Cambridge!’.

Well done to all those Year 7 pupils who did so well in competing in this year’s competition and to those who managed to get to the regional final. Big congratulations also to those pupils who have made it through to the National Final in July. We wish you all the best of luck and we hope you get to bring some trophies back to Yorkshire!

STOP PRESS!!!

Beverley High's successful competitors were featured in two stories in the local press!

http://www.hu17.net/2015/04/17/beverley-high-school-show-they-are-a-clas...

http://www.hulldailymail.co.uk/Beverley-High-School-girls-beat-74-000-re...

The University of Huddersfield, with support from Routes into Languages, has been working with Ossett Academy on an enrichment programme for A level students at Ossett Academy.

Students looked at a wide range of linguistic and cultural topics, designed to enhance and enrich their studies and to provide a boost to their A Level preparations.

During the six-week programme, students deepened their knowledge of food, tradition and major industries, as well as elements of popular and traditional culture, such as films, literature and music.

In analysing language, they looked at youth language, regional dialects and the changes caused by the international influence of English.

Students produced articles examining some of these issues in greater depth. These were then shared with the rest of the group, enabling everyone to benefit from more information on each of the topics.

For more information contact Malcolm Pollard: m.c.pollard@hud.ac.uk