Laois school joins celebration of culture and languages

Students from Portlaoise College joined over 17,500 students nationwide to participate in the #ThinkLanguages 2024 festival of languages and cultures.

The seventh annual #ThinkLanguages event was celebrated in more than 200 post-primary schools from November 18 to 22, with Portlaoise College joining the nationwide celebration involving transition year students.

This flagship event by Languages Connect aims to highlight the personal, social, professional, and economic benefits of learning foreign languages.

The theme for this year's festival, ‘Think Global, Act Local,’ encouraged students to explore and celebrate the cultural and linguistic diversity in their school, homes, local community, and beyond as inspiration for their individual events.

Portlaoise College extended a heartfelt thank you to all the local organisations and businesses for supporting the TY(Transition Year) students in their celebrations. A special mention goes to Laois Library and the shops on Main Street, who hosted our students on Tuesday during their multicultural Scavenger Hunt in the town.

Portlaoise College TY students celebrated the event throughout the week with a range of engaging activities and workshops designed to bring the languages of our school community to life. Highlights included sessions in Spanish, German, Polish, French, Korean, and more.

A dedicated group of six TY students (well done to them) spent recent weeks meticulously planning their events to ensure a fun and successful celebration. Together with the local community and fellow students, they organised activities such as Korean workshops, Spanish sessions with salsa and football, German vocabulary hunts, French workshops, arts and crafts, and more.

The school also thanked Post-Primary Languages Ireland for their support, including providing materials, posters, and gadgets that helped promote the event and emphasise the importance of learning foreign languages.