Year 9 pupils put languages to work
15 December 2022
On Friday, 2 December we hosted a careers event for Year 9 pupils to 'Make Languages Work'.
Head of Languages, Mrs Scully, explained "The objective of the event was to expose pupils to the range of different careers for which a language would be useful."
Pupils took part in three very diverse taster sessions using different languages: Chinese with the Confucius Institute at UCLan, a 'hands on' session with British Sign Language, and a presentation from Médecins Sans Frontières.
In addition to the presentations, pupils took part in career speed-dating. The hall was filled with tables and the Year 9 pupils moved around to engage with each of the visiting organisations. We were also fortunate to have Daniela Flint, a senior lecturer in German from UCLan, launch the sessions with a talk about the different language pathways available at the university.
There were many careers and languages represented at the well received event.
- TESOL from UCLAN (teaching English as a second language)
- Sarah Cutts, legal translator
- Arabic with Nadja L'Bakkari
- World Wise Languages, Sofia Anysiadou, UCLAN
- NHS translator, Lucy Booth
- Memoirs of a year Spain, Sarah Eastham
- The food and wine from France - Mr and Mrs Taylor
- Life as a lead languages teacher in a primary school - Rebecca Benson, Broad Oak Primary School
- Video producer and director, Lee Deaville
- Restaurateur, Irėne Monteleone, from Pane e Vino
A huge thank you to all our guests who made this a very successful event for our pupils.
Sarah from Sarah Cutts Translation, who specialises in Spanish and French to English translation of legal, academic and commercial documents, replied by saying: "It was a privilege to be invited to Penwortham Priory Academy to take part in a “Making Languages Work” day with the Year 9 students exploring the different careers available with languages. Hopefully they were inspired and thank you very much for having me!"
The Worldwise Centre said: "We had an amazing day attending the 'Languages at Work' event. Our amazing UCLan TESOL and Modern Languages students shared their experience and career plans with 180 Year 9 students. What a day! Thank you for the invitation!"
Photo credit: Thank you to keen photographer Ameer A-H , Year 11, who kindly stepped in to take these images.
