English in action!

English News in Middle and Senior
Well, rain or shine, the English Department has been busy, busy, busy! And it has not been only Language, Literature and exam preparation. Here’s what we have been up to.

New Faces!

Some of our former teachers are trotting the globe, embarked on new pursuits, so we have three new members in our staff: Amanda Paladín-Forrester (full-timer), Carina Menán (Senior) and Marina Ceppi (Debate).  Welcome, teachers!

Debate

The year started with our super Senior Debate Team, Alejo Gonzálea Virgili, Lucas Reynoso (both from S6H) and Mercedes Mariño (S6L), participating in the Panamerican Debate Championship in Vancouver, Canada, as a part of our National Debate team. The 24 members of the National Team had been selected out of the 337 students who participated in the 2015 National Debate Championship, during which they had obtained points for their performance. There was also a final selection interview, in which the candidates were tested on their knowledge of current affairs and their ability to think quickly and argue on a variety of controversial topics.

What is next for these talented debaters? They have been preselected for the World Schools Debating Championship (WSDC) that will take place in Stuttgart, Germany, in July 2016! We wish them success in their final interviews, next Saturday, May 7.

Debate – Acorn Cup 2016

Congratulatios to BDS Junior and Senior Debate teams,  who won their respective debates in the first round of the Acorn Interschool Cup, hosted by Islands International School last Monday, April 25.

Our Junior Team: Florencia Gadea (M3C),  Clara Palotta (M1C) and Manuela Sánchez de Coto (M1A) debated and won the motion “This Hose Believes that unvaccinated children should not be allowed to attend school” on the proposition side, against Instituto Nuestra Señora de las Nieves.

Our Senior Team debated and won the motion “THBT teachers should not be allowed to go on strike” on the opposition side, against Martín Buber School.

Well done!

English Speaking Union – Annual Public Speaking Competition, April 19, 2016

The theme for this year’s competition, organized by the English Speaking Union and hosted by the British Embassy, was “Integrity has no need of rules”. Mercedes Mariño (S6L) made a brilliant presentation entitled: “Who will set the rules?” and then answered questions from the judges. She received warm congratulations from both judges and teachers from other participating schools. Good job, Mechi!

Creative Writing

Belgrano Day School was one of a select group of schools in Argentina invited by the Embassy of Ireland to participate in their Creative Writing Competition. St Brendan’s College and the Irish Embassy got together to celebrate 50 years since the creation of our neighbor school, and to commemorate 100 years of the Easter Rising, a historical milestone which marks the turning point in the fight for Irish independence from British rule, which was finally declared in 1919.

The competition was held on April 29, at St Brendan’s, and BDS was represented by three talented young writers: Santiago Comes (M1D), Florencia Gadea (M3C) and Michael Page (S5S). We will keep you posted on the results.

This year, the ESSARP Creative Writing Competition will see a change in format, though not in spirit. The aim is still to encourage a love of writing and Literature, and to nourish a form of expression that channels ideas and emotions in a way that enriches both writers and readers. But this year, they’ll be doing it on line! On Wednesday, May 11, from 2:00 to 4:00 BDS participants will writing in room 105, here, at home. Our writers’ names: Lucìa Tissera and Ilan Cohan (P6), Santiago Comes (M1D), Santino Galluppo (M2B), Carolina Baglioni (S4A), Vicky Romero (S4A), Michael Page (S5S) and Luz Mautner (S5S). Happy writing to all of them!

400 Years since Shakespeare’s Death

No, we had not forgotten. And our beloved bard is everywhere: M1 has made presentations on Elizabethan Drama and is now reading an abridged version of Macbeth; M2 will soon be teary-eyed over the suffering of “star-crossed lovers” Romeo and Juliet; and S6 are studying the tragedies of Antony and Cleopatra and Othello. In Drama, Yaiza is working with L students on famous fragments and soliloquies from different plays.

And we are also working on the facts, not just the fiction. In Language, students are working on news reports and opinion articles on his life and the many reasons why Shakespeare is still relevant today.

And there is more to come on this very important commemoration. Keep your eyes open!

Gaby Correa- Coordinator of English, Middle & Senior