On Tuesday 27th June, four of our finest linguists from Years 5 and 6 took part in the Spanish Primary Bee National final at the University of Cambridge to compete against the most proficient language learners in the country. This fantastic initiative aims to support and inspire children to practise and improve their vocabulary, pronunciation and memory skills in Spanish.
We set off early by train and the children excitedly spent the journey testing one another on all the competition’s key words. On arrival, we took a picturesque walk in the sunshine through the beautiful Cambridge streets and stopped for a delicious ice cream along the River Cam. Later, we headed to Lady Mitchell Hall at the Faculty of Medieval Languages and Linguistics in order to soak up the pre-competition atmosphere and have a quick bite of lunch with a game of chess.
The competition began at 1pm and the children were excited to hear that they were sitting in the very hall where Stephen Hawking celebrated his 75th birthday. Each school’s contestants had to stand and translate as many words as possible from English into Spanish in one minute with the added challenge of performing in front of a large audience. Two judges, one of whom was a native speaker, listened and kept score. One point was awarded for every word that was correctly translated and pronounced. Despite the fluttering of nerves (mainly from the teachers!), all four children calmly and confidently translated their key words at lightning speed with no mistakes.
There was a healthy dose of competitive spirit between all the competing schools but also a real sense of enjoyment. Our children really stepped up to the challenge and were wonderful ambassadors for St. Christopher’s. Despite narrowly missing out on a place in the final, the children were already winners to us and made us so proud. iBuen trabajo, todo el mundo!
