Jerudong International School (JIS) celebrated The European Day of Languages on Thursday. This day - 26 September -was proclaimed by the Council of Europe on 6 December 2001, at the end of the European Year of Languages, which had been jointly organised by the Council of Europe and the European Union. Its aim is to encourage language learning across Europe.
At Jerudong International School, students participated in a variety of linguistic/cultural activities within their scheduled Language lessons, having the entire day focused on Spanish and French lessons. In addition, 28 Year 6 students from Panaga School and their teachers spent the day at Jerudong International School to join in with the European Day of Languages celebration at JIS.
School Principal, Nicholas Sheehan explained ‘As an international school, with a Bruneian heart, we value the richness of the cultural diversity at JIS. We have 1663 students from 55 different nationalities. Language and appreciating the languages of others, is an important part of this. On Tuesday we held a Malay Language focus day and today we have the European Languages day. It is wonderful to learn from one another!’
Activities were held in various locations in the school. In the Junior School, Year 4 began their day with role plays and practising the beautiful language with greetings, Ballon Prisonnier & Pétanque were played with Year 7, a European Treasure Hunt on European Culture was held with the Year 9 Spanish class, Football games with Year 5 and later on they had fun cooking Escargot (snails), Crêpes (thin pancakes) and tortillas (Spanish omelette).
Head of European Languages, Mr Philippe Poulain commented: "We enjoyed having our visitors from Panaga school today. It was an excellent experience for them and we look forward to developing community links with teachers and students there in the future. Collaborative learning and teaching adds another dimension to the already extensive professional expertise within the European Languages Faculty."
