What a time we had on Friday

What a time we had on Friday! Celebrating the European Day of Languages, after quizzes in House assemblies, we found an unexpected ‘catch of the day’ on the lunch menu – mussels prepared ‘traditionelle’. Catering manager Martin Benson and his team had entered gamefully into the spirit of ‘entente cordiale’, and steaming, fragrant bowls of plump ‘moules marinieres’ were snapped up with great enthusiasm.

	Arabella in Year 7 said she loved the sauce, and Phoebe in Year 8 is hoping that we do this all again sometime...Could that be to do with the Belgian waffles, syrup and cream that followed?...

Fuelled by the delicious lunch – whatever we chose to consume – we headed to the Holst Hall, drawn by the sounds of thumping music for an International Top of the Pops. French, Spanish, German, Italian, Russian and Japanese - the language departments, helped by their pupils, had selected a track each to play, with a supporting video on the big screens. No handbags to dance round, but quite a lot of action as you can see from the photos. The DJ, Mr Billington, announced the winner: Japanese band Perfume with their number ‘Chocolate  Disco’, although the Spanish entry came a close second according to some Year 9s.  

If you stop to think about it, it’s a good way to get people to listen to other languages, and we looked the part for a disco in our own clothes:  Friday was also the day the work of the charity Jeans for Genes was marked nationally; staff and pupils wore jeans and paid £1 so that research can continue into understanding more about different genes in conditions like cystic fibrosis, haemophilia, sickle cell anaemia and Down’s syndrome. We learnt more about this in Wednesday’s assembly.