Guest Speaker Welcomed at Collyer’s Languages Conference

Last week, Collyer’s saw the return of its successful Modern Foreign Languages Higher Education Conference. The event welcomed Southampton University’s Senior Teacher, Julia Kelly who discussed the importance of studying languages in higher education and made a presentation to AS level students about what it is like to study languages in Higher Education.

Julia Kelly from Southampton University addresses the students

Deputy Head of Faculty and Subject Leader for MFL, Helen Taylor said: “We are incredibly grateful to Julia Kelly for speaking to our students today. Her talk was inspirational and she kindly took time out to answer extremely broad questions from individual students about combining modern foreign languages with other subjects at university.”

The event was an opportunity for students who are considering modern foreign languages courses to gain valuable knowledge of what university language programmes at Southampton University, and in higher education in general, entail and requirements for applying to these courses.

Ex-Collyer’s students currently studying French, German and Spanish at Southampton University were on-hand to give advice to prospective students and provide answers to any questions they had.

From left: Szimonetta Forgacs, Julia Kelly; Madeleine Hughes, Helen Taylor, Emily Usher, Margarita Mortimer and Katja Welton

Collyer’s Assistant Principal Melanie Russell said: “The event was incredibly well received and gave our students a unique insight into studying modern foreign languages across the country. Thank-you to Julia Kelly, our brilliant languages team and our supportive ex-students, for making this conference so valuable and informative.”

Story and pictures by Izzy Watson