Languages Week

From Monday 9th February to Friday 13th February, 2026 Ruislip High School celebrated its 6th annual Languages Week and its first ever Trust-wide Languages Week.

The week kicked off on Monday 9th February, 2026, with Year 9 enjoying a talk from Steve Eadon, a former coach for Arsenal Football Club. During his time at Arsenal, Steve managed the award-winning ‘Arsenal Double Club’ languages project, using football as a tool to inspire young people to learn new languages. During the talk, Eadon shared with students the importance of languages and how they can open doors in their future careers. Year 9 left the assembly inspired, having had the chance to listen to Eadon about his experiences.

Daniel, Year 9 said: “I found the Arsenal speaker very inspirational when he talked about his travels and how his languages helped him get his job. I am now considering talking Spanish for GCSE.”

Amaris, Year 9 said: “Languages Week was really fun! I personally took part in the majority of events from the spanish movie, the play and the Languages breakfast. My highlight however would be the assembly by Steve Eadon as it was incredibly engaging. I was on the fence about picking Spanish for GCSE but now I'm going to for sure.”

After school, over 120 students signed up to watch Disney’s Elio in either Spanish on Tuesday or Thursday after school in French! During both screenings, students tucked into free popcorn donated by CineWorld. Luke, Year 8 "The movie was very entertaining and the free popcorn was very good.”

On Wednesday 11th February, Ruislip High School led its first ever Trustwide Languages Week Event hosted by Ms Matias, Curriculum Leader of MFL. 40 students were in attendance from five out of the six Trust schools ranging from Year 5 to Year 7. These students were spoken to about the importance of learning languages by the Languages Ambassadors from both Ruislip High School and Vyners School. All students took part in a Kahoot quiz which tested them on lots of trivia ranging from odd laws, strange words and typical clothing worn all over the world. Vyners School triumphed and won the trophy for the quiz. This was followed by the VLT Languages Week Bake Off judging. Each school brought in their winning showstopper cake which showcased a particular country or language. Each school had a chance to judge the bakes alongside 3 members of VLT staff including the CEO of the Vanguard Learning Trust, Dr Lecky. All entries were very impressive but it was Ryefield Primary School who won the trophy for the winning bake and a £30 gift card was awarded to the baker herself who was in attendance. Vyners School came second and Ruislip High School in third place.

Following this students took part in an hour long Salsa lesson taught by a Cuban dance instructor who taught the students some spanish for the steps, directions and body parts they needed to use. At the end of the session all students then danced to a full latin track and were thoroughly pleased with themselves. Whilst the younger students took part in the Salsa lesson the Languages Ambassadors from Ruislip High School and Vyners school took part in an hour's collaboration meeting where they worked together to decide how they would grow their roles and promote languages in the respective schools this year. All Ambassadors spoke highly about how productive the meeting was and all the ideas they came up with to put into fruition.

Leia and Ella, Year 7 said: “We participated in the VLT Languages Week event. We enjoyed judging the cakes and doing the codebreaker but for us the highlight of the event was learning the salsa. Arriba, arriba!”

On Thursday 12th February, the Year 9 Languages Breakfast was hosted by the Year 10 Language Ambassadors. The event was attended by 140 students and the event was a fantastic success. Students enjoyed an array of French and Spanish food, ranging from croissants to churros. In addition, students took part in a code breaking task using their language skills to try and win one of the three gift vouchers up for grabs.

Tommy, Year 9 said: “I won the Languages Week Breakfast menu competition which was really nice and also the food was amazing."

Ibrahim, Year 9 said: "As a result of this breakfast, it really enhanced my opinion of languages and my self awareness about people' s diversity and where they come from. The whole experience was a once in a lifetime one, not even about the food but the amount of effort that went into it."

Dragos, Year 10 Languages Ambassador said "Being able to express my opinion on languages to the younger years and hopefully encouraging them to take a language for GCSE. I'm extremely lucky that I was chosen as a Language Ambassador and that I was able to take part in some extraordinary events that took place during Languages Week including the Languages Breakfast and the VLT event. Both of these were incredible, especially seeing people that share the same passion for languages that I do. Finally, being able to go on stage and speak at the Language Breakfast was one of the highlights of my time at RHS because being able to persuade or help Year 9 students to pick a language for GCSE is so important to me because languages are helping me everyday.”

Throughout this week language themed activities were planned in lessons across the school, to demonstrate to all students the influence of languages across the curriculum.