Cheney Languages Week

The last week of Term 3 saw in our first Cheney Languages Week - a week-long celebration of Cheney’s heritage languages - of which we are monumentally proud to boast over 80! 

Lessons began with multilingual welcomes at the door, lesson dates written in one of our student’s home languages, and flag badges sparked rich conversations between staff and students about where we all have global connections to.

In tutor time students took part in quizzes to uncover the hidden linguistic talents of Cheney staff, challenge how much they know about the languages spoken by our school community, and listened to staff stories on the value of embracing our cultural identities in Assembly. They learnt about opportunities for studying a GCSE or A-Level in home languages from our Sixth Formers, and took part in a Multilingual Drop Everything & Read where they read Harry Potter in Albanian, Portuguese, Arabic, Urdu, and Ukrainian! Wednesday’s Interhouse Library Quiz attracted a crowd as students competed to identify flags, national anthems, pop music, and even animal sounds (chrum chrum…) in different languages. 

Throughout the week, the multilingual children’s book display in the library caught the eyes of many, and the selfie booth proved fashionable amongst our younger students. Our EAL students' taster sessions and a cultural food bring and share on Thursday lunchtime was well attended, and was a shining example of the pride with which our students speak of their home countries and cultures. Our Cultural Dress day rounded off an unforgettable week, with our Sixth Form Charity Committee raising lots from the flag face painting students enjoyed at breaktime. We could not have been more proud to see the vibrancy and diversity of our student’s flags and cultural clothing brighten up the Cheney playgrounds on an otherwise very dull February afternoon.

A heartwarming celebration of our community’s linguistic and cultural diversity - bring on Cheney Languages Week 2026! 

Miss Lebari (Organiser)  

If your child would be interested in studying for a GCSE or A-Level qualification in their home language, please get in touch with Dr Bown for details.