In May, the twenty-four keen linguists from WHSB across Years 7, 8, 9 and 10 who took part in the preliminary round of the Association for Language Learning’s "Have Your Say" Competition at Westcliff High School for Girls on 4 March, travelled to Colchester to take part in the Regional Final of the 'Have Your Say' Competition.

Pupils in Years 7, 8 and 9 learn a dialogue in French, German or Spanish and write the last four lines themselves. This is then memorised and performed before judges and fellow contestants. Pupils in Year 10 must write the entire 14-line dialogue themselves, incorporating a set list of words in their script, memorise it and perform it before judges and other Year 10 pupils. In the finals in Colchester, there was a second element added to the competition. Pupils in Years 7, 8 and 9 had a few minutes to practise and perform an unseen dialogue before the judges. In Year 10, pupils had the same unseen task, but they also had to complete the last two lines of the unseen dialogue.

There were 17 schools competing in the finals, from all over Essex and Suffolk, and 240 pupils took part. We are delighted to announce the following successes for pupils from Westcliff High School for Boys:

Year 7 Spanish - 2nd place for Aaron and Charlie

Year 8 French - 1st place for Sucheet and Taseen

Year 8 German - 2nd place for Saifan and Farhan

Year 9 German - 1st place for Harry and Ishan

Year 9 Spanish - 2nd place for Rayyan and Affan

Year 9 French - 3rd place for Zebediyah and Saif

Year 10 French - 2nd place for Agamjot and Naiyan

Year 10 German - 2nd place for Anas and William

We are proud of all the Westcliff competitors, regardless of whether they were awarded a certificate. The competition was fierce and everyone performed very well.

With thanks to Ms McKeown, Ms Niedziela and Miss Kollinger for accompanying our pupils to Colchester.