Conversations with Romayne Wheeler

On 16th April, JAGS was delighted to welcome Romayne Wheeler and Katrina Allen to the school. They talked to the pupils about life and music in Latin America. For the full story click here.

Dia Latino
A Celebration of Latino Culture, Language and Food.
8th February 2008

JAGS was the place to be to learn about Latino culture and sample some delicious Spanish and Latin American food on Friday 8th February.   

The Spanish Department was delighted to welcome students from the Academy at Peckham, Notre Dame RC School and Charter School who joined JAGS Year 9 Spanish students for an afternoon of dance, drama and art workshops.


Dance

Flamenco, tango and salsa are Latino dances which have acquired worldwide popularity in recent years and rhythm was the watchword for the three groups which took part in the dance workshops lead by London-based professional instructors. 

Lola Rueda was resplendent in her bright orange flamenco dress and, after explaining some of the basics of this intricate dance, she soon had students performing on the theatre stage!  José Luis Correa led the salsa workshop and in no time at all he had students moving their hips to the Cuban beats.  In the tango worskshop with Diana Arrazola, students learnt about this elegant Argentine dance and before long were gliding across the floor of the sports hall as if they were auditioning for Strictly Come Dancing!


Art and drama

Picasso is one of the most famous artists of the twentieth century and students in the art workshop learnt about his life and work, thanks to fascinating presentations from the JAGS Sixth Form Spanish students.  They also discovered other Latino artists such as Miró, Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera and Juan Botero and produced their own colourful drawings imitating the style of Picasso and Miró. Students in the drama workshop explored their creative side under the expert guidance of Mary Anne Vargas.


Fiesta

The afternoon ended in style with a ‘fiesta latina’ in the Sea Cadets’ Hut which had been regaled with flags, posters from Spain and Latin America and other Latino artefacts (of which, the inflatable cacti were the most popular!).  Students, teachers and visitors were able to try some superb tapas, including tortilla española, cold meats such Serrano ham and chorizo, Manchego cheese and membrillo (quince jelly), olives.  Those with a sweet tooth enjoyed the alfajores – a special Peruvian biscuit prepared for us by Tito’s Peruvian Restaurant at London Bridge.

We were very pleased that a representative from Southwark Council was able to join us for the afternoon as the whole event would not have taken place without the generous funding from Dulwich Community Council Fund.

We also would like to thank Dulwich Community Council Fund for its support. There was no charge for this event.

Click here for the programme. 

Spanish New Year celebrations

You’ve heard of the Chinese New Year celebrations but the Spanish Department organised the Spanish New Year celebrations on Friday 18th January. The highlight was the famous uvas de la suerte/ “lucky grapes”, the Spanish challenge of eating a grape for each strike of midnight from the most famous Spanish clock: el reloj de la Puerta del Sol en Madrid. Many of the students got it right and ate a grape on the strike, but others could only manage to keep the pace till the month of March (grape no. 3!!!!). For all of you: ¡¡¡¡Feliz Año 2008!!! Thank you for your participation and donations. This event was in aid of SOS Tucumán an Argentinian-Spanish organization which works to help children in need in Tucumán (Argentina).

Lorca Workshop for A2 Spanish Students

The Spanish Department was delighted to invite Mary A. Vargas, who has performed, translated and directed Lorca plays, to conduct a workshop on Lorca’s Bodas de Sangre. The workshop was an opportunity to act out some extracts of the play and to further understand the text. Students had an enjoyable and fruitful morning and we were amazed with our students’ performance skills!

The Spanish Department has links with several charities working in Latin America and we endeavour to support them in as many ways as possible. We are delighted to work with Project Peru which is a small, lively, totally voluntary UK-based charity offering food, clothes, education, shelter and fun to those in need in a country where half the population exists on less than one dollar a day. The charity focuses on running a refuge for children in the desert shanty towns near Lima, and offering practical and ongoing support to those living in extreme poverty in the community. At the end of the autumn term we took part in Project Peru's Christmas cake raffle 2007. We were provided with a fantastic Christmas cake which had been professionally iced and decorated at no cost to the charity. Staff and students were very supportive and we were very pleased to raise our target of £120 by raffling the cake and Mrs Karen Cattanach, one of our school nurses, was the lucky winner. The money raised will be enough to send two Peruvian children to school for a year!