News
You can find here interesting news and facts from our school,
as well as the recent news from our city/ country
A day with a native speaker
On June 8th our students from grades 6th up to the III Lower Secondary had interesting workshops conducted by a native speaker from Ireland, Richie Mullaney. Topics were different for each age group.
The highest grade were learning about teenage language, in other words, how to communicate when you are very young and you want to be cool.
The youngest group was having fun with games and drama.
For class I Middle School the topic was more serious. As this is the year of Shakespeare, they had a chance to hear some fragments from the great author’s plays in their original language. Pupils had even the opportunity to perform in some of the scenes.
The day ended with “Little Britain”. This workshop showed pupils of the second Middle School grade that there are so many different accents and slangs in the UK that it is sometimes impossible to understand the local languages. So they must not be frustrated if visiting this country, as the accents they hear at school are not always what they will hear abroad.
All pupils acclaimed that the day was both fun and they were learning something new.
Barbara Shiell
Cambridge exams in our school
As in the previous years, also this year, some pupils of our school have been taking the externally organised Cambridge exams. Many students from class 6 Primary took KET exam (level A2), then students from the second Middle school class (but some even from class I) sat the PET exam (level B1).
Last Saturday, the chosen, most advanced ones, were sitting the FCE exam (level B2). The exams are organised in the premises of our school, as there is such a good number of pupils who want to take them. The results will not be known until July.
Barbara Shiell
Debinka Day of Languages
On the 11th of May Debinka celebrated a Day of Languages. All pupils, from all classes, took part in it. The teachers’ aim in organising this day was to give students as much independence as possible, to teach them self-reliance and stress their creativity.
The early learners were obtaining their knowledge about the English speaking countries by preparing posters, commixes, recycling rhymes or singing songs.
Students of higher grades drew names of some countries belonging to the European Union and each class prepared events to represent their country. Their presentations included advertising spots, little films about the countries, knowledge quizzes, and interviews with imaginary or real people from those countries, also presentations describing historic events. Languages of those countries were being thought, local cuisine was represented. All classrooms were nicely decorated so it was known immediately what country was being presented.
Students acclaimed that the day was a success, they learnt a lot and had fun.
Barbara Shiell
Ticket to Birmingham
An interactive performance? Is it possible? Yes, it is. Such is the show presented by two very talented performers in “Ticket to Birmingham”, which was brought to Poznan by an organisation called LearningWithoutBorders (NaukaBezGranic).
The show, which was attended by our Class I Gimnazum last Thursday, was based on well-known Monty Python sketches “The Dead Parrot”, “You have to pay for the argument” and so on. All in English, of course. But, our pupils did very well joining in the fun, sending parcels to Australia, returning the dead parrot, all in the Monty Python spirit and doing the accent as well.
When we, the teachers, heard our students leaving the venue loudly singing “Always look at the bright side of life” we knew that they had enjoyed the performance and the time going to see the show was not wasted!
Students of Dębinka awarded for their scholastic achievements
On 15th April 2015 a ceremony took place to award pupils from district of Wielkopolska who became the laureates of various interschool competitions at the level of Lower Secondary School.
Our school was represented by:
Anastazja Kurosz (2nd grade) – Polish Language
Marcin Ciesielski (3rd grade) – Biology
Paweł Pazdrowski (3rd grade) – English Language
Congratulations and our very best wishes for their future achievements
Workshops with native speakers
At the end of March all Middle School pupils had the chance to participate in workshops with native speakers sent to us from “Bell” Language School of English.
Some of the groups debated on the topic of “New Communication Technologies” – advantages and disadvantages that they bring. As the children commented: the topic was well known to them, therefore they did not learn anything particularly new, but it was great to hear original accent, in this case, American.
Another group talked about totally different subject, such as : “Scotland, country, people and culture”. Pupils learnt lots of interesting facts about this beautiful land. And they were really appreciating this new knowledge that was coming from someone who lived there for many years. But the most enjoyable moment was probably when they had to decipher the meaning of some words, often still used in Scotland, but of Gaelic origins.
Brainiac
On Thursday, 9th of April 2015, as every year, some pupils from both Primary and Middle School took part in a very challenging competition called “Brainiac”.
Students had a chance to show off their excellent English language skills, their creativity and good memory. With incredible concentration (for two full hours) they were solving language and logical problems, filling in crosswords, working out quizzes, answering questions in connection with video materials.
All students found the challenge very exciting and winners (at each level separately) were given rewards.
Meeting with Kaja Watson
Recently even very young pupils of Dębinka had a chance to meet with a native speaker. It was Kaja Watson, 9 years old, a pupil of class 4 from a school in Edinburgh.
While her mum was preparing a presentation for the students of the Middle School, Kaja, in the same format, prepared two presentations: Cats and Dogs and Endangered Animals. Kaja showed her presentations to students of class 4 and 5SP. Specially the girls in those classes enjoyed the visit. Kaja was very happy about her meeting with children from a Polish School and proud to conduct a lesson.
Barbara Shiell
Meeting with a native speaker.
On April 16th pupils from the Lower Secondary School had another chance to meet with a native speaker. This time it was class II and III, and the speaker was Davina Watson from Edinburgh, Scotland. She introduced them to the issue of Scottish independence, as in September 2014 the people of Scotland will take part in a referendum where their votes will decide whether Scotland remains part of Great Britain, or the majority of voters will choose Full Independence for their country. The presentation was followed by our students’ debate where they had to imagine how they would vote in such referendum.
The meeting was interesting and well received by our pupils during all three sessions.
Erwina Jiya
Brainiac
On Thursday, 13th March 2014 students from both Primary School (grades 4-6) and Junior High could participate in the 2. Edition of English Language Contest BRAINIAC organized by English teachers of Dębinka. This year 4-6th graders (48 students) and 46 students from Junior High were working on 10 different tasks. They could use their creativity, knowledge, language intuition as well as memory.
Three best couples at each level were awarded with books and diplomas.
Both the number of participants and their involvement proved that our students were highly motivated and had fun.
Ewa Stokłosa, Erwina Jiya
Meetings with Native Speakers of English
As from the beginning of this school year, pupils of Dębinka have had the possibility of attending workshops with native speakers of English.
Most recently, 17th January 2014, Mr Patrick Jiya (from Nigeria) ran a workshop for the students of class IIIG devoted to the topic of culture, native inhabitants and variety of languages spoken in the Black Continent.
On the other hand, on 23rd of Jan, students from classes I and IIG had a meeting with Ms Brittany from the USA. She was introducing them to the topic of: Great Britain and the USA – similarities: myths and facts”. Students enjoyed all the workshops very much. Their opinions about them can be found on our website in English/pupils’ work
Barbara Shiell
DEUTSCH-ESPAÑOL - German-Spanish Language Competition, 2nd edition
On January 15th Dębinka’s students had the second opportunity to take part in the German-Spanish competition. Over fifty students from the primary school and thirty from the middle school took it and faced the language challenge. The participants worked in German-Spanish pairs and answered questions, whose theme ranged from vocabulary, grammar and everyday expressions to culture and geography of the Spanish and German-speaking world. Six teams from the middle school, which were qualified for the second round, participated in the oral part of the competition as well. The results were as follows:
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Primary school |
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Grade 4 |
Grade 5 |
Grade 6 |
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1st position |
Alicja Ćwir |
Natasza Leśków |
Julia Rogowska |
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2nd position |
Maciej Leśniewicz |
Mikołaj Żołędowski |
Aleksandra Sadowska |
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3rd position |
Zofia Ograbek |
Jakub Jezierski |
Klaudia Blumreder |
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Middle school |
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1st position |
Dominik Teusz and Jacek Jankowiak |
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2nd position |
Wojciech Maciński and Milan Stanisic |
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3rd position |
Ignacy Pawlak and Kinga Małecka |
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Congratulations and see you next year!
Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde
Good and evil. A secret. Concern for a friend. And also a fair amount of wit. All that was witnessed by the students from middle school’s grade one during the performance of Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde. TNT Theatre Britain was warmly welcome by our pupils who bravely faced the challenge of watching the show presented entirely in English.
Ewa Stokłosa
School Trip to Scotland, September 2013
Between 19th and 23rd of September, a group of pupils from the Lower Secondary School, took part in a trip to Scotland. The purpose of the excursion was mainly to see the sights of Edinburgh, but also to get to know history of Scotland, a very interesting country, with a rich past.
The life story of Mary Queen of Scots ran through the whole trip. While visiting the beautiful ruins of Linlithgow Castle, where she was born, or the Holyrood Palace, where she lived. Even the Edinburgh Castle was marked by her presence, as she took refuge there from the mighty lords who wanted to punish her for being a catholic Queen. All those places were not only beautiful, but also rich with memorabilia, teaching our students many facts about that country.
One of the highlights of the trip was climbing Arthur’s Seat, the highest point , from where the city panorama was just amazing.
Apart from history, our student were learning other things too. The interactive museum called Dynamic Earth took them to the beginnings of our Earth, the Big Bang. The Scottish Royal Museum had something to offer to everyone’s interest. The National Gallery of Art is small, but full of most famous names of artists who are exhibited there. To leave the city on a lighter note, on the last morning, we visited Camera Obscura, the world of illusion, which our pupils really enjoyed.
I hope it was a trip to be remembered by all, teachers and students.
Barbara Shiell
Competition of Wislawa Szymborska’s poetry in English.
In Debinka, on June 18th 2013, a reciting competition of Wislawa’s Szymborska poetry in English was held. There were only 8 competitors, mainly from class IB, IIIB, but also one from class 6Primary School.
The task for our students was not easy. Reciting such great poetry, especially in a foreign language, was a challenge. But most of them faced up to it very well.
The girl from the highest class was the unrivalled winner, followed by two students from class IB, who also got prizes for their interpretation and memorising the text so perfectly.
Thank you all for your interest in the competition.
Barbara Shiell
Play performed in English by “Drama in English” Society
Recently the members of School Drama Society have given two performances of a mini-play titled “Christmas. Why do we do that?” We don’t often question our Christmas traditions. But Drama in English Society decided to do just that. The TV anchors are sending their reporters to talk to different sorts of people, looking for the roots of various Christmas customs. By moving in space and time they slowly discover the reasons of our somehow strange behaviour. Why do we want to have a tree in our living room once a year? Or, why do we suddenly have the urge to kiss someone under a mistletoe branch? A variety of different characters move through this play, from different countries and centuries, characters who long time ago made an impact on Why We Do That at Christmas Time. The theatre group (under the direction of Mr M. Maciolek and Mrs B.Shiell) have only given two performances, but just as Christmas always comes back, so will they, with another performance.
Barbara Shiell,
Maciej Maciolek
BRAINIAC – ENGLISH LANGUAGE COMPETITION
Are the students of Dębinka English Brainiacs? It turns out they are! 60 students from primary school and 52 students from middle school took part in the competition.
Prizes were provided by ENGLISH CLUB – the British Council Examination Centre in Poznań. Thank you!
DEUTSCH-ESPAÑOL - German-Spanish Language Competition
The competition was a big success. 44 students from primary school and 24 students from middle school took part in it. The participants answered grammar questions, solved communication tasks and talked about the culture of German and Spanish-speaking countries.
Thank you for your participation and congratulations to the winners!
ENGLISH SPEAKING COUNTRIES CULTURE
AND HERITAGE COMPETITION
On Friday the 1st of June there was a completion which checked pupils knowledge about English speaking countries such as United Kingdom, USA, Canada, Australia, Scotland and others. They were contending in pairs. There were two age groups which were taking part in the competition at the same time. First was made from primary school, grades 4-6 pupils. Second group included students from junior high school. There were 5 rounds in the competition. Amount of points that pair could get for each question was rising with the number of the round. The competition was very exciting and everybody could win. But there could be only one winner! The primary school winner pair is one from grade 6B and the junior high school winner pair is one from grade IIA.
Everybody is invited to the next competition next year.
Dominika Przekota IIIa
