Guernsey Press

Sark pupils keep the island’s language alive – with the help of Czech student

A TRADITIONAL patois poem was performed by children at Sark Schoo.

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Students from Sark School's class 3 with Czech PhD student Martin Neudorfl (Picture supplied by Sark School)

The class of eight children at Sark School have been learning their island’s language, Sarkese, with the help of a Czech PhD student, who has been coming over to the island for the past three years to discover more about its history.

Head of Sark School Dr Nicholas Roberts said the reading of the song entitled Man Mari E Ben Malade was a huge success.

'The children clearly enjoyed themselves and received very positive feedback from the four remaining native speakers of Sarkese and other members of the community.'

Since taking on the role of headteacher of Sark School in September, French has been re-introduced into the curriculum throughout the school.

'While we work tirelessly to provide a curriculum that broadens our pupils' horizons, it has been wonderful to teach our pupils about their own linguistic and cultural heritage,' he said.

'It has been absolutely fantastic to see the children so engaged in learning Sark French and I hope that it has awakened an interest in learning more about other languages and cultures.'