A Spanish speaking theatre company was welcomed into school to perform its play ‘En El Campamento’ to Year 8 children.
The Modern Languages team has worked with the The Onatti Theatre Company before but it’s not been possible over the past couple of years due to the pandemic. It is a great opportunity for Year 8s to get in touch with the Spanish language and discover for themselves how much they already understand.
According to teaching staff, the children were absolutely brilliant and really engaged. Before the show, students worked in class on the vocabulary they needed to be familiar with to fully enjoy the experience. The two performers spoke fully in Spanish and all the Year 8s were able to follow as a result of their growing knowledge of the language. The actors also helped by pointing things out and repeating slowly when introducing new words. It was a very interactive performance, where students were asked to answer questions as a group and as individuals, supporting the characters, Catalina and Matias, in their fight for choosing what to eat first.
At the end of the performance, it was great to see many students asking the actors and showing an interest in what they had seen.
Teachers and students have talked through the vocabulary again since seeing the play and feedback from these lessons has been very positive:
Students’ comments
- “I liked the play because it was funny and I was learning from it. My favourite part was the fight about food.” (Jayden)
- “The play taught me more Spanish and I understood it well.” (Kieron)
- “I thought it was really funny and interesting, I understood some of it and I thought it was really fun and good.” (Ella)
Thank you to The Onatti Theatre Company whose performance we look forward to seeing in 2023 with this year’s Year 7s.