Our school is in a fortunate position as the only Area School in Dunedin, with students from Year 1 through 13. This means that our Junior School students have access to resources and opportunities most primary school students do not, such as a the Sports Centre or subject-specialist teachers on top of the fantastic teaching they are already receiving.

Junior School students already have regular language classes in te Reo and Chinese from our subject specialists, Matua Nick Price, and Mrs Ivy Ding. This week, the Year 9 French classes decided they would also like to go over the road to say a friendly ‘Bonjour!’ to add another language experience to the mix.

In Year 9 French the girls have been learning how the way you write and say colours in French can change depending on what you are talking about. The girls made their own books which counted items up to ten in French, and went and read to the Year 1-2 class.

It was great to see how quickly our junior students could pick up words such as ‘bleu’ or ‘marron’ or be able to show them the examples of French language that are already in their classroom such as the glue sticks that have ‘bâton de colle’ written on them.

Being new to the school this year, it was lovely to walk through the pretty Autumn leaves falling and get to know the Junior School staff and students better. Coming up next week, the Year 7s are looking forward to visiting the Year 6 class to teach them what they have learned to further strengthen our connection between the Junior and Middle schools.

Ms Rachel McDonald, HOD of Languages.