As part of our Spotlight on Friends series, we hear from Nina Maniaque-Nagano and Anne Kaeschel who run the After School Language Club...

"With the help of the FONS award of £350, an after-school language club is run at the Lower School by French Language Assistant Nina Maniaque-Nagano and German Language Assistant Anne Kaeschel. In the Michaelmas Term, the German intern Anahita Amanolahi supported the club as well. Every Tuesday, about 8-10 children (L2-U3) participate in fun activities around languages and different cultures.

Thanks to the award, we could buy several materials that were used for different activities. For Christmas, we introduced them to the tradition of “Nikolaus” which is a vital part of the German-speaking culture and includes boots filled with sweets and fruits which we provided for the pupils. Moreover, the children enjoyed making gingerbread houses that are popular in a lot of European countries. Another culturally important event that is celebrated around the world including Brazil, Venice and Germany is the carnival, which we celebrated by making colourful masks. For Easter, we organised different activities linked to traditions in various countries celebrating Easter, e.g. making an Easter basket, colouring Easter eggs and of course an Easter hunt which the pupils enjoyed a lot.

Language learning is more than learning words by heart. Therefore, we used the award to buy toys such as plastic fruits, inflatable microphones, and pointers to make the club more interactive, e.g. by buying fruits in a “French market” or practicing a lot of different languages in an interview-like situation with the help of the microphones.

Throughout the school year, we also invested in art supplies such as cardboard paper, origami paper, etc. These were used to make lanterns for the celebration of Chinese New Year and St. Martin’s Tag, origami for the Hanami ritual in Japan, as well as cards for different occasions. As it is a club for the Lower School that includes a lot of games, we also bought edible prizes to motivate pupils’ learning.

We think that this club contributes to the Norwich School community as it introduces different cultures from all over the world to children. Thereby, the pupils broaden their horizons and learn to be tolerant towards and celebrate other traditions and customs. It is a first step to gaining intercultural competence that is vital for living in such a diverse society as the UK. They also benefit from the club on a more individual level as it builds a solid linguistic basis at a young age which will be developed when they join the Senior School and learn different foreign language at a more advanced level.

Therefore, we want to express our gratitude to the FONS for awarding us this grant as we could only realise all of these activities thanks to the generous support of Friends of Norwich School."