Year 9 Discover Languages At Work

Year 9 pupils learnt how a foreign language could be vital to their careers in a successful ‘Make Languages Work’ event held last Friday at Priory. 

Head of Languages, Mrs Scully, split the day into two parts with the aim to show how languages can be used in a range of careers. 

“There was something for every pupil,” said Mrs Scully. “We had Lee Deaville who produces video footgage and he had created some for Liverpool Football Club.  He talked about how they had to get a translator in to help them because of the language barriers with some players. Some of the pupils were hooked by that! 

“We also had a visitor who had worked with Primark, travelling Europe, and she said being fluent in Spanish was vital for her to do her job so I think it made some of the pupils aware of how valuable learning a language can be.” 

One half of the day included presentations in Chinese with the Confucius Institute at UCLan, a 'hands on' session in British Sign Language, and a presentation from Médecins Sans Frontières where they talked about the value of different languages and the need for translators in the Third World. 

The second part was a career speed-dating session which was popular. The hall was filled with tables and the Year 9 pupils moved around to engage with each of the visiting organisations.  

There was a huge range of people available to chat to about their jobs and the importance of different languages to their roles. 

They included: Sarah Cutts Translation, who specialises in Spanish and French to English translation of legal, academic and commercial documents. 

A magician talked about how he had to speak four different languages for his shows while Sarah Eastham, a language teacher, talked about living in Tenerife and teaching English there. 

Mr and Mrs Taylor are involved with food and wine from Europe and they chatted about the importance of languages for their business while Lee Deaville was the video producer and director who included Liverpool FC in his talk! 

There was a visitor who worked on cruise ships, TESOL from UCLAN (teaching English as a second language), Arabic with Nadja L’Bakkari, a representative from the army and also someone who could speak Japanese, Russian and German. 

“There was a varied range of jobs to show the Year 9s,” continued Mrs Scully. “We also had good feedback saying how engaged the children were and how well-behaved they were. 

“There was something to grab everyone’s attention.” 

Sarah Cutts, who is a parent of a Year 7 pupil at Priory, said: “It’s great to be invited back to Priory, as a translator and a parent.  Languages have always been my passion, so I am keen to promote careers in translation and other language related professions as much as I can."

Thank you to our Year 10  & Year 11 pupils who supported the event and made our visitors welcome.

Oli H, Josef H, Kayleigh B, Henry W, Cameron H, Sam D, Preston McM, Ella G, Navah T, Jolie T, Chloe W, Sophia T, Summer W, Ruhm S, Max B, Indra J, Connie B, Imogen H, Charlotte M, Layla  H, Darcey K, Taylor S, Geetha D-R

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