Welcome back to Languages week at Penola Catholic College, from Mon 16 until Friday 20 May. In this week we are not just celebrating the languages we teach at Penola, but also those languages our staff and students speak or hear in their families, as well as all our diverse cultural backgrounds. Studying languages and cultures means gathering people, constructing something new and sharing it in a meaningful way.

To inaugurate this week, we organised a staff morning tea on Monday, which displayed a wide selection of sweet and savoury foods, mostly inspired, when not truly authentic, by French, Italian and Japanese cuisine. Sushi, savoury croissants, French and Italian small patisserie and cakes…a feast for the eyes and the palate.

The big event of Languages week is always the Year 9 banquet, which this year was on Tuesday 17 May. All Year 9 Languages students and teachers, joined by the EAL, Jumpstart and Curriculum support students and their teachers as guests, took part in the banquet, which ran from the start of lunchtime until the end of the day. In preparation for this event, the students created and printed out their language-themed menus and organised the table decorations in groups. During the lunch, which featured sushi as the Japanese entrée, lasagne as the Italian main course and eclairs as the French dessert, there were several quizzes and activities, such as tongue twisters, where the students had the opportunity to show their knowledge of language, cultural facts and pronunciation skills.

All languages teachers are running special activities with all their classes during this week. For instance, Year 10 Italian students have been making ‘pizzelle’, a traditional waffle-like cake from the region of Abruzzo. Year 11 Japanese students enjoyed a special lunch with obento boxes on Tuesday. There is more coming, on Friday, all Year 10 Japanese students will be participating in two Japanese drummer workshops with amazing performer Toshi.

I would like to thank every staff member of Penola catholic College who has contributed to Languages week with their help, enthusiasm, passion for and appreciation of languages. I wish our students and families build an even stronger sense of community through love and understanding of different languages and cultures. Whenever we connect and build bridges, as it happens with languages, we are a family.

Fulvia Galigani
Head of Languages