What our students think about studying extra subjects in English

Little by little at our school we are introducing more and more subjects in English in order to improve the students' proficiency in this language. Difficult though it might seem at the beginning, as it definitely requires an extra effort from the students, it turns out to be an excellent tool to increase our students' level.

This year we had Social Sciences taught in English in 2ESO. Now that the school year is coming to an end, it is time to dedicate some thought to how successful the experience has been. For this reason, we interviewed some 2ESO students who volunteered to give their opinions on the matter. Thank you very much for your help and your enthusiasm!

Watch the video:

Apart from Social Sciences, the students at our school learnt Citizenship, Ethics, Entrepreneurship in English this year. Here are the opinions of two 4ESO students about learning Ethics in English:

TAMARA DIOSES: "This year I think it was a good idea to have more subjects in English, because we have learnt more vocabulary about Ethics and also we have learnt how to memorise faster and more easily in other languages, in this case in English. Furthermore, we have improved our speaking skills because we have done a lot of presentations."

SERGIO MORENO: "From my point of view it's a great idea to study subjects in English because we can improve our level of English and we can develop skills such as speaking, listening...and this is a benefit for our future because we are going to be able to use it whenever we want.

Let's hope we will be able to increase the number of subjects in English next year!

The Big Challenge Prize-Giving Day

One more year our students gathered at the school hall to receive their certificates and prizes after their participation in the Big Challenge contest.

The 51 students were called one by one and were given an envelope containing various gifts, according to their marks. The most fortunate two were Diego Gelinck and Maria Rancaño who, apart from getting the presents from the  organisers of the competition, also got a voucher worth 20 euros to be spent at Fnac. That was the school's special prize for the two students who were outstandingly good at the competition.

Perhaps the most enjoyable moment was the raffle. Two 1ESO students were very fortunate as they won the two special prizes: a USA flag and an enormous alarm-clock.

Thank you everybody for attending the ceremony and we look forward to seing you all again at the next edition. Our special thanks to those 4ESO students who have been taking part in the competition year after year ever since they started 1ESO at our school and no longer will be able to participate next year.

Acting out

Here we are, almost ready to record a short video of a play by Shakespeare that will allow us to participate in the Oxford University Press competition to commemorate 400 years of Shakespeare's death. Yes, Shakespeare died 400 years ago, and yet people from all over the world still continue to perform  his plays. And so do we, at the Princep de Girona school. In these photos you can see 4ESO students during their rehearsal of Romeo and Juliet, at a lovely spot under the trees, the newly created amphitheater of the school. Good luck to you all in the competition, the prize  is really worth it: a trip to London for a long weekend for the whole class!

Conference time!

 Our 4ESO students had the chance yesterday to enjoy an interesting talk about how to become a president in the USA.

 As a school, we were very honoured to have Janet deCesaris with us. She is a professor at the Pompeu Fabra University. She kindly accepted our invitation to participate in our English Week but, due to technical problems, her talk had to be postponed until yesterday. The conference took place in the School Hall and the students enjoyed the chance of having a native American speaker at the school.

The talk was really interesting: she went through all the long, difficult steps the candidates of both Democat and Republican parties have to follow before they even have the possibility of being elected candidates for their party. She made the students think about whether the American electoral system is a fair one or if there existed a way of improving it and how. She also gave her view on the present elections in the USA and who seemed to be the most plausible candidates. At the end of her talk the students had the chance to ask her some questions about it.

We would like to express our most sincere gratitude for her contribution. Thank you so much, Janet!

 

Hamlet at school

Two Hamlets visit our school to commemorate 400 years of Shakespeare’s death. Pepe Segura and Pol Blavia… Now that's talent!

On Friday 22nd, these two superb actors went on stage to perform one of the most famous monologues from Shakespeare’s Hamlet: TO BE OR NOT TO BE… THAT IS THE QUESTION. Dressed up for the occasion, and with the help of a skull and a dagger, they performed their roles with breathtaking skill! Pepe started his part in English, and Pol finished the monologue in Catalan. The result was a ten out of ten! Listening to them, one had the certainty that that wouldn't be the last time we could witness their good acting skills. Congratulations and thank you very much!

Watch the videos of the performance:
https://youtu.be/lzFTgOgmRXM

https://youtu.be/3XMGrquDPxo

The Tree of Wisdom

What makes us wise? What is wisdom? What wise advice can we give to each other? This year, as part of the students’ tasks for Saint George’s day, all the ESO students were asked to participate in the display of a big mural entitled “The Tree of Wisdom”. What was their contribution? The students wrote their ideas on some colourful leaves to complete this magnificent tree! All this was carried out under the supervision of our artistic speaking assistant, Adnan Rawi, who also prepared the background and painted the trunk of the tree. Thank you so much, Adnan!

Here is the result of such a great piece of art, with photos of the students from different groups, as they came down to the school hall to leave their contribution on the wall.

In the making: Adnan and Zulema in action!

Carmen and Sonia helped with the title!

3ESOB students and their leaves

  2ESO acollida

1ESOB

 3ESOA

 3ESOK

 The final result!

 Some leaves in detail

1ESO Q

   2ESO K

 2ESO Q

 4ESO B

 4ESO K

1ESO A

Our third-year students reveal their culinary skills

This week, apart from practising their English, our students have been able to show their cooking abilities: from crispy chicken to pizza, from Chinese dishes to Philippine ones, lovely, tasty, delicious cakes of all sorts... biscuits with chocolate chips in them... all in all, a pleasure for the senses!
Here are some photos of some of the students showing the video they recorded while giving their explanation on how to cook these dishes and some others that show the final result. 

Enjoy your meal!

An introduction!

Hello everyone!

A photo of the students of 3rESO with me, the English conversation assistant; Adnan Rawi. 

I studied English Literature in the University of Damascus, where I was born and raised. I moved to Barcelona in mid 2014, presented an art exhibition in Sitges 2015, joined the qualified staff of the English department at Institut Príncep de Girona in January 2016.

I appreciate art, philosophy and 

languages, and I'm very grateful for being a part of the respectful institution.

The students have their say on the English week.

                                                                                                                     

MURALS VIDEO!

A video of the murals we did for English Week!

English Week day 5: Karaoke Concert with Connie Lynch!

"Without music, life would be a mistake."

The last day of our school's English Week was exceptional! We had an amazing time singing out loud accompanied by a great talent with an outstanding voice; Connie Lynch. 
Music connects and brings us closer, singing great songs is a splendid technique, one of the most efficient when it comes to building up the vocabulary data bank. 

A video of our students singing: 
"We will rock you - Queen"
"I feel good - James Brown"
"Imagine - John Lennon"

ENJOY VIDEO 1
VIDEO 2
VIDEO 3

English Week: days 3 and 4

Yesterday and today was the time for story-telling sessions. We had two special guests for the occasion: Kirsten Tinkler, who told our younger students some horror stories about the city of London and who even used a disguise for the event; she also played the violin for the students as part of her performance! And Jamie Keddie, the famous author and public speaker, who told some stories from You Tube and got the 3rd and 4th year students really engaged with them! They were both excellent! Here are some photos of their performances:

While all this was taking place in the School Hall, the text book author Paul Kelly was quizzing the Batxillerat students: they had to answer questions from 5 different sections in small groups. There was even a small prize for the winners! All in all, these last two days have been a big success as well!

Scottish Dancing with David Vivanco!

David came all the way from Scotland to Barcelona to share the beauty of his culture with us during our school's English week!
We enjoyed the different types of sportive dancing, the mesmerizing sounds of the Scottish bagpipe, the magical musical spoons, and the delightful stories of the men who wear kilts! 

A video of the activity with an interview with David Vivanco

VIDEO!

Getting ready for the ENGLISH WEEK!

At last! Next week is the big week: THE ENGLISH WEEK! We are all excited about it and we are decorating the school. Each level has been working on a different English speaking country: 1ESO has specialised in the United Kingdom, the second-year-students have been working on Canada, 3ESO has been dealing with Australia and 4ESO with the USA. Finally, the 1BAT students have focused on New Zealand. What have they been doing? They have been searching for information about the country, giving a class presentation, filming a video and making posters. Everything is ready now for next week. And what have we got for next week? Workshops on Scottish dancing and bagpipe playing, story-telling sessions, quizzes, conferences and pop/rock Karaoke concerts!!! We can't wait for the big week to start!!!