We are extremely fortunate at Sacred Heart to have many students who speak a language other than English at home. It is a true gift to be bilingual (or even trilingual) and being able to use another language competently is to be celebrated and will stand our students in good stead in the future.
We have an increasing number of students who wish to gain formal qualifications in their home language to demonstrate their competence, and the main exam boards provide GCSEs and A-Levels in some of the languages used in our school. In fact, in the Summer 2024 exam season, students in Years 10 and 11 sat GCSEs in Polish, Italian, Turkish and Portuguese with fantastic results: 92% of students achieved a Grade 8 or 9.
Congratulations to these students for all their hard work and dedication: the many late hours of extracurricular sessions at school and revision at home were worth it. I would like to thank our visiting speakers: Mrs. Turkcakal, Mr. Wilkinson and Ms. Thompson. Special thanks go to our own Mrs. Lewandowska who worked so hard with the Polish students.
If you are in Years 10 or 11 and speak and write another language and would be interested in following the example of these students, then please come to talk to Mrs. Russell and she can let you know if there is an exam available in your language.