Papplewick boys celebrated European Language Day on 26th September in characteristic style.
Parents' contributions were invaluable as always with workshops about Spain, Russia and Turkey to name but a few.
With some parental led workshops, the boys were informed about various aspects of different countries such as Spain with one of the highlights being La Tomatina - a Spanish Festival where people throughout the country gather for a tomato throwing contest which takes place on 28th August, using extremely ripe, non- edible tomatoes grown especially for the event, together with the cleaning up process afterwards ! They also talked about the Spanish language in general and of course (rather a popular subject) discussed foods eaten in Spain, including paella (pronounced pie-eh-ya) chorizo, tortilla and the exalted churros!
The Turkish workshop was also fun - the boys learnt different challenges such as counting up to 10 and learnt that in the Turkish language various words can be combined to make others and that was how the longest word in the Turkish language was made. They also learnt a Turkish tongue twister which the boys found fun. The Turkish language is known for its agglutinative nature meaning it forms words by attaching multiple suffixes to a base word.
The boys also learnt much about Ukraine its history and its National treasures and learnt some of the language i.e. how to pronounce phrases such as 'Hello my name is .........' and 'Goodbye'.
Another parent conducted the Russian workshop teaching words from the language, the Russian alphabet, the fact that Russian has eleven different time zones, and that a country such as Canada could roughly fit twice into Russia! Towards the end of the session they played some Russian 'Billy Eilish' Folk Music and were given a Russian lollipop each! A greatly enjoyed and informative day for all.
Headmaster, Tom Bunbury said '
We are so lucky to have such incredibly interesting, interested and willing parents at Papplewick who contribute so greatly to the school community and especially in days such as EDL when the boys learn so much about their friends' home countries - it is always a very special day.'
October 2025