From 8 to 15 March, linguists from Year 7 to Year 11 took part in the 2022 BSME Languages Championships. The annual competition is organised by Education Perfect and involves pupils testing their language skills and trying out new languages. For every question answered, every skill mastered, every activity completed, pupils gain points which lead them to gain Award Certificates. This year pupils took part in German, Spanish, French, Mandarin, Arabic, Italian, Japanese, Maori, Malay and Indonesian. Pupils took part in the competition online and could practise reading, writing, speaking and listening in their chosen language. The most popular activity was the game of DASH, where pupils competed against each other to complete a language task in the fastest time.

During the week-long competition, pupils at Brighton College answered 166,582 questions and scored 84,708 points during the 262 hours they spent online practising and learning a wide range of languages. The pupils’ hard work, dedication and commitment to languages certainly paid off, as our school came 5^th out of 23 schools participating in the Middle East and 3^rd out of 12 schools participating in the UAE. Brighton College gained 1^st place in German out of 16 schools participating in German in the region. The school also achieved 2^nd place in Mandarin out of 17 regional schools participating in Mandarin.

There was a real buzz in the school during the Championships as pupils compared their scores and looked for any opportunity to achieve more points and beat their classmates. We are extremely proud of our pupils’ achievements, and we really value their commitment to language learning and their love of languages. The award winners attended a special Award Ceremony on Thursday 24 March, where they met with the Head Mistress, Mrs Helen Wilkinson, as she awarded their well-deserved certificates. It goes without saying, our linguists are already looking forward to the 2023 BSME Languages Championships.