Oxford University’s Translation Competition, the Anthea Bell Prize for Young Translators, ran its inaugural competition in the Summer Term of 2021 and two of our pupils won the Northern Ireland heat in their respective age groups. Holly Cobain’s entry for the A Level task came first and Grace Farrell came first in the GCSE level task. Natalie Honeyman’s translation was also highly commended in the A Level category. Well done to all winners and participants in this challenging task. The competition for the current academic year was launched on International Translators Day, celebrated every year on 30th September. This competition runs in all 3 of the languages studied at ERGS, and there are entry levels for all year groups. Anyone interested should speak to their language teacher.
Five of our current Year 11 and 12 pupils participated in online German summer courses during the holidays. Matthew Shaw, Hannah O’Connor, Max Hannigan and Tegan Hannigan all took part in the first online summer course organised by the Association of Teachers of German. This involved online seminars running for 5 mornings in July. All participants enjoyed the course and found it of value. Joseph O’Kane was successful in his application to a very popular German summer course run online by the UK-German connection. This intensive virtual course involved working with other young people and teachers across the UK to practise and improve their German skills.
The German Department are impressed and very proud of the efforts of the aforementioned pupils. It is a pleasure to see our pupils seek enrichment and practice of their language skills outside of the classroom setting.
J Donald