More than 400 students from across the borough took part in an exciting range of activities to celebrate European Day of Languages.

The Europe-wide initiative, which is held on the same date every year, was hosted by The Crystal in the heart of the Royal Docks.

The event has been specifically designed for Year 6 and Year 7 students from schools within Newham, and has developed following a planned collaboration between Charles Claxton, Principal of Oasis Academy Silvertown, and Karl Pfeiffer, Director of Educational Links at Goethe-Institut London.

Charles Claxton, principal of Oasis Academy Silvertown, said: “We are really excited by how much local schools have got behind the event. We know the children enjoyed the opportunities to appreciate how important languages are in all aspects of life.

“We hope this will be the first of many events that we will be involved in to celebrate the European Day of Languages; we have been delighted by the response from other local schools, and we are grateful to all of our partners without whose support the event would not have been possible.”

A range of organisations supported the event with Siemens making the Crystal available. One of their top engineers spoke about how languages are relevant in the workplace.

BMW and Tesla both sent electric cars, underlining the importance of sustainability in a global context. The Goethe-Institut and UK German Connection ran workshops on the day.

Young people from the borough also took part in performances in foreign languages. Representatives of the European Commission also supported the event which also included a treasure hunt in German.