As I stumble through Duolingo’s Italian course and when every new word I come across seems to end up in a sentence involving sugar, I harbour a deep-seated jealousy of the pupils at our school, so many of whom speak at least two languages. This could not have been more clear when I spoke to the Year 5 choir at Open Morning on Monday. After singing beautifully for the assembled parents, I quizzed the children, as I sometimes do, to give the parents an idea of what our pupils experience at the school. How many of you take an after-school activity? A forest of hands – seven different activities from the first seven children. Who here has a sibling? A remarkable number! Who plays a musical instrument? Most hands aloft. Who speaks another language? Astonishingly all but a small handful. Up until recently I had always thought speaking another language was mainly an advantage for communicating. I have come to learn more recently that being bilingual affects not only how you speak, but also how you see the world and that it shapes the way one thinks. So, for example, if you are from a culture that doesn’t have the concept of left or right, but only use the compass, how you orientate yourself eventually shapes your brain. The direction you read will affect how you organise shapes, playing cards and so forth. Interesting to me are those languages, such as the one I am stumbling through, which have different genders for nouns. This affects how one personifies these nouns, but also how one comes to think about words. If a bridge is feminine, it is more likely that people in countries who describe bridges in this way see them as ‘beautiful’ or ‘elegant’ (or that bridges designed in these countries are more beautiful and elegant.) And so, for you bi-lingual, tri-lingual pupils and parents please feel sorry for me when I mumble, ‘Il gatto è nello zucchero’… It’s early days!
What a fantastic inter-house dance competition in the Seniors this morning – a great start to the day!
(If interested see podcast, ‘Hidden Brain’)
WE ARE WINNERS!
Crosfields School has won ‘Social Infrastructure Project of the Year’ at the British Construction Industry Awards 2022.
Please click herefor more information regarding CAT4
Head Lice
We have had some cases of head lice within the school. We advise parents to check their children today. Please click hereto read about how to detect and treat head lice.
Please do not panic, head lice are very common and easily treated. Please do not hesitate to get in touch with us if you have any further queries or concerns.
Thank you,
The Medical Team
For the attention of all Parents
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Please get in touch with the Marketing team here, if you have any questions.
As the iSams parent app does not support forms, any leave of absence requests must be made using the Parent Portal accessed via the Crosfields website. The link is found under the Community tab. Please do not email leave of absence requests directly to your child’s form teacher.
Crosfields Spectator's Code of Conduct
School Calendar
Just a reminder that the school calendar is now on the iSams parent portal under the School Life tab. There have been a number of additions and modifications this week so please remember to check it regularly.
Mr Simon Dinsdale, Second Master
Junior School includes Nursery to Year 6 and Senior School includes Years 7 to 10.
