How will you use English in the future?

The question of how students will use English in their future lives is a recurrent one. They encounter it in preparation classes for their Cambridge exams and in some of their regular English class units. Answers normally range from ‘for work’ (I will use it for my future job, in an international company, etc.) to ‘for leisure’ (I will travel all over the world and use English as my lingua franca...).

How about ‘for family?’ One option seldom contemplated by students is using English for their closest personal relations. Will someone marry an English-speaking person? This Christmas, a Polish company created an ad that has gone viral, with over 7 million views on YouTube. In it, an old man in Poland begins to teach himself English for a very special reason… Want to know why? Here is the ad: https://youtu.be/7D3WJB5Yikw

Besides being touching in many ways, the ad makes us realize how English could become much more important in our future lives than we had ever imagined. Merry Christmas to you and yours!

Javier García

English teacher

Christmas adverts

Every year some of the world’s most famous brands and companies make special Christmas adverts for the season. Some are funny, some make us cry and some have a great story with unexpected wonderful endings.

In 1st Year Secondary we have been analysing these adverts in order to make our own. We saw four very different adverts which we later compared and contrasted together. After that, we decided on the most important elements of those adverts, got into groups of four or five and started writing our script.

We decided that the most important element was the lesson that we learnt by the end of the advert. Some of the lessons we most liked were; Christmas is for being with family, the best gift is being together, and sharing is caring. So it was crucial that our stories also had an important Christmas message at the end.

We hope that your Christmas is filled with stories like ours!

Christmas advert links:

Sainsbury's:

2016 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bq5SGSCZe4E

2015 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kuRn2S7iPNU

Marks & Spencer's:

2016 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5QPXhStb5I

John Lewis:

2016 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sr6lr_VRsEo

Alessandra Bell

English Department

Deck the Hall

Deck the halls with boughs of holly…

Fa la la la la, la la la la.

‘Tis the season to be jolly…

Fa la la la la, la la la la.

Just what we thought and what we are about to do…perhaps not with real holly, but with all the lovely Christmas creations that pupils in Infants have been making ready to decorate the School.

As well as making decorations, pupils have been practising playing percussion instruments, which will come in handy when they want to join in with Christmas carols. We have also put up our giant Advent calendar, ready to count down to the Christmas holidays and revise Christmas vocabulary at the same time. Of course, we are already being reminded by pupils to help them  “write” their letters to Father Christmas in case he needs a few ideas!

Last but not least, we would like to wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year…

…from all the teachers in Infants.