IATEFL National Competitions 2021

Through this school year, despite the restrictions connected to public health, a number of regional and national competitions have been able to take place as usual in Slovenia.

Some of the most important of these connected to English are organised by the IATEFL organisation and through their competitions they judge students of different year groups in their knowledge and application of the language.

For 2nd Year students, the competition takes the form of creating a short video for which the script must contain a set of unusual words being used in the right way. The challenge set for 2021 was to make a movie trailer style of video for a film that reflected something to do with life in the future.

We are happy that a group of our students took to this project with a great deal of energy and enthusiasm. They came up with a number of different ideas for the film before settling on the one they thought had most potential and then worked hard on drafts of the script until they were happy that they had created something interesting and entertaining while also fulfilling the brief of the competition.

As part of the final report for the project, some of the students involved summarised their experience:

“Though we had our fair share of struggles and various technical difficulties, creating this short film was an unforgettable experience for everyone in our group. Working together as a team was very enjoyable. From the early stages of development to the script writing and shooting, we had a lot of fun creating this project and learned many new things along the way – teamwork, editing videos, recording and composing music, and much more. We are very proud of the short film we have created and grateful for the opportunity to peek into the world of film making.” (Barbara Makovec, Rok Sušnik)

We are delighted to announce that the judges reacted very well to the film and awarded our students a silver prize at the national level.

Congratulations to Numa Hlebec, Barbara Makovec, Rok Sušnik, Bina Verbič Šalamon, and their mentors for the project.

This sense of pride in what students from Gimnazija Vič have been able to achieve, even under the challenging conditions of this school year, continues when we reflect on the results of students from our 3rd Year classes who took part in this year’s written competition. A combination of grammar, cultural knowledge, and writing skills are tested every year and students start with a competition at a school level before going on to be challenged at both regional and national levels.

Our congratulations go to Ana Stergar and Lana Šturm who were awarded a gold prize, and to Filip Trplan and Ema Hanžel who achieved silver awards. In addition, we must thank the teachers from our English department who worked alongside the students in preparing for the different tasks and those who provided other support to the organisation of the group through the year.