“Enriching and rewarding” symposium on learning languages at university

QE’s Sixth-Form linguists met up with counterparts from across Hertfordshire for a symposium aimed at those considering studying languages at university.

Sixteen boys headed off to St Albans High School for Girls (STAHS) for the event, which featured workshops run by academics from Cambridge, Nottingham and Birmingham universities. They worked alongside pupils from other county schools.

Head of Languages Christopher Kidd said: “Our boys were very impressive and were keen to demonstrate their knowledge. They got an insight into what studying a language at university would be like and they found it an enriching and rewarding experience.”

In the French workshop, participants looked at surrealism and had the opportunity to compose a poem. The German workshop looked at history. There was also a talk about studying, working and living abroad in which the value of language-learning was emphasised: it was pointed out that the UK is losing out on trade worth £50 billion annually because of poor language skills.

The symposium’s host school, STAHS, was recently named The Sunday Times Independent Secondary School of the Year 2015-2016 at the same time as it was confirmed that QE had retained its first place in The Sunday Times Parent Power league table of the country’s top 200 state schools.

All the QE pupils enjoyed the day, Mr Kidd added. “It has certainly given them more confidence in their language lessons and has made many of the boys consider taking a language as part of their degree.”

The boys were accompanied by Assistant Head of Languages Burgunde Lukasser and French & German teacher Marie-Jo Jaquin.