FROM THE PRINCIPAL

While it wasn’t quite how we expected to start the term, we trust that you and your family have survived the lock-down period and have been able to return to a more normal routine. It has been a blessing to welcome the students back and return to face to face teaching. In this edition of the Chronicle, we are focusing on our Spanish program in the College. We were very fortunate to be able to hold Hispanic Day before the end of Term 2 celebrating our language program. Please enjoy the images of the day in this edition.

Jenny Nelson, Principal

¡Hola! Learning Spanish at SVCC

Southern Vales has been teaching Spanish for over a decade for many reasons. Spanish is spoken as the first language by at least 400 million people around the world and is currently the fourth most commonly spoken language worldwide. Spanish is an important community language in Australia. With 117,498 speakers according to the 2011 census (compared to 90,477 in 1991), Spanish is the 7th most commonly used language in Australia after English. The presence of Spanish in Australian schools and universities has grown exponentially in the last decade, due in large part to students’ demand.

With Spanish being one of the three most widely spoken languages in the world, the ability to speak Spanish opens up a wide range of opportunities in the commercial, educational and hospitality fields, across a vast number of countries throughout the world.

Learning any second language is good for children's development. Research shows that when it comes to learning languages, the earlier you start, the better and easier it is. Learning a second language not only provides a deeper understanding of other cultures and societies, it also provides the student with additional all-round advantages, including enhanced literacy, verbal and mathematical skills, increased creativity, and improved ability to solve complex problems.

LEARNING SPANISH by Design

At SVCC we are blessed to have two Spanish teachers, Mrs Mureithi and Mrs Bailey. The Understanding by Design curriculum planning is used to create engaging Spanish language learning opportunities for our students.

This term, Mrs Mureithi's Junior Primary classes are focusing on their likes and dislikes and animals that live in South America. The Essential Questions that they are investigating are:

How do I share what I like and don't like in Spanish? How are adjectives used in the Spanish language?"

Mrs Mureithi's Middle and Upper Primary classes are focusing on our world and the environment. Their Essential Questions are:

What makes places unique and different? How do Spanish speakers communicate ideas about the environment?"

How do you persevere in language learning, despite limited vocabulary in the target language?"

Mrs Bailey's Year 7 class is learning about how to talk about self, family, location, jobs, hobbies and present circumstances by writing their own biographies in Spanish. The Essential Questions that they are considering for this unit of work are:

What describes me? What is unique in my life? How can I communicate those in Spanish?"

Is my life similar to someone living in a Spanish speaking country?"

Mrs Bailey's Year 8 classes are learning how to share and communicate ideas about their personal worlds focusing on their city by creating a city brochure for possible Adelaide tourists.

What makes Adelaide unique and special? How can I communicate those ideas to a Spanish speaking tourist?"

What language barriers do we encounter when talking about cities?"

Mrs Bailey's Year 9 classes will investigate how to promote events and possible global issue solutions in Spanish by creating an ad promoting SVCC. Their Essential Questions are:

What is remarkable about our school? How can you communicate those ideas to a Spanish speaker?"

How can grammar, intonation and pronunciation enhance the communication of your ideas?"

Sarai Bailey and Taija Mureithi, Spanish Teachers

HISPANIC DAY 2021

In Week 10 of Term 2, we celebrated Hispanic Day at both campuses. It was a great celebration of Hispanic culture with the Primary students dressing up in traditional Hispanic costumes and their favourite Spanish sports teams. Thank you to the parents and caregivers who helped the students look so fabulous!

The students thoroughly enjoyed participating in Latin dance classes with Val from El Ritmo. It was great to see all the boys and girls being involved and putting in an effort to learn the moves. There was also a Spanish assembly with costume parades and presentations from each class. Our special guest via Zoom was Jo Crowe from Serving in Mission (SIM) Australia in Peru. She spoke about her experiences in a Spanish speaking country and the missionary work that she is doing in Peru.

VISITING ARTWORKS from the NGA

The Foundation students enjoyed learning about, viewing and handling sculptural artworks on loan from The National Gallery of Australia. The Wolfensohn Gift program funds cases of artworks to travel around Australia and we have now been fortunate enough to have cases twice in the last two years. Mrs West and Ms Parker are showing these special sculptural artworks to each class over the next month.