On August 28th, our Year 7 Italian students participated in the Centre of Italian Studies (CIS) Poetry Recitation Competition at the college. This event provided a wonderful opportunity for students to immerse themselves in Italian poetry while creatively practicing their language skills.

The competition required students to memorise and recite poems, challenging their focus and expressive abilities. Despite the difficulty, our students rose to the occasion, showing both dedication and enthusiasm. This experience not only enhanced their Italian skills but also deepened their appreciation for the art of poetry.

We are proud of their efforts and achievements, and the students share this pride, as reflected in their comments below.

I memorised it by looking at the poem every class and practising it over and over again in my spare time. One of the challenges that I faced was getting the pronunciation and expression of the poem right. To improve, I attended the Italian poetry mentoring sessions. Overall, I felt that my poetry recitation went well and that my pronunciation and pace were both pretty good. Through this experience, I realized that Italian is a deeply poetic language that should be spoken with emotion and expression.
Matthias Y 7F

To memorize the poem, I focused on learning each stanza one at a time, then combined them. The Year 12 students helped me perfect my pronunciation. One challenge I faced was remembering to say the poem's title in Italian (l’ ultima foglia) instead of English. To fix this, I kept practicing until I consistently said 'Sette C.' Overall, I feel good about my recitation—my pronunciation felt right, though there may have been a small mistake. This experience gave me a better understanding of Italian pronunciation and changed my perspective on the language.
Emily J 7D

Prof. Stangherlin and Prof. Schiliro
Italian Teachers