Category: conferences

Last week I attended the 5th edition of Practical Pedagogies, a conference like no other. This year saw it return “home” to The International School of Toulouse in the sunny south of France.

I love this conference and have been privileged to be invited to speak at all 5 conferences in 2015, 2016, 2018, 2024 and now 2026. If you click on the dates, you’ll see what I learned from in previous years and why I agree to attend – and speak – every time i’m asked by Russel Tarr.

This year my session was entitled Take One Book – I’ll share more in another post – and that left me 7 choices of sessions, plus the keynotes and endnote.

My reflections – they have been ongoing all week but the main points that keep coming back.

*Mattering – we need to feel that we matter whether we are a child, a teenager, and adult.

*Belonging – likewise, we need to find our place and feel secure.

*Flourishing – we should all have the opportunity to grow and flourish, not being kept in a pot or jar that’s limiting our growth based on our perceived “potential’ Thank you Dame Alison for the story of Claudia.

*Wonder – we should never lose the ability to be surprised, wowed and moved by our learners – a principle for life too.

Rewrite the unhelpful stories you tell yourself.

HOPE IS EVERYTHING.

As usual I attempted to sketchnote all the sessions I attended; this was made tricky when I left my pencil case on the other side of the school and had to search for an emergency writing implement. prior to Dame Alison Peacock’s keynote. IST is so amazingly organised and tidy that it took me four classrooms to discover anything suitable when I found a pencil, hidden on a book shelf. Below are the outcomes – I’m out of practice but am determined to recover my skills. I think, in an age of AI, it’s good to engage your brain as much as possible!

Hope you find them helpful and that they give you a flavour of the sessions. Feel free to leave comments and ask questions if you want to know more!

Finding good CPD for Primary Languages can be a challenge but the Association for Language Learning (ALL) is always a good place to turn. Their annual Primary Languages Conference – sometimes called Acapulco – is a must attend. This year it’s even better as you can ‘attend’ at your leisure rather than being tied to a day, interact with other participants online by aksing questions and commenting, and then attend a live fringe event in November where all the speakers will be there to interact live and in person (online!)

I’m really pleased that I’ve been asked to be one of the presenters and am looking forward to interacting with participants.

Below you can see the other presenters and their themes/topics, as well as details of how to join. As an ALL member it costs only £5 which is an amazing bargain!

Presentations

There are 10 presenters speaking on the theme of ‘The Primary Languages Journey’. The presenters are all experienced teachers who have a wealth of expertise teaching languages to young learners. Their presentations have been recorded and are 20 – 30 minutes in length. They can be viewed as many times as you like until 31^st January 2027. You will be able to comment on the presentations, ask questions and share ideas. The presenters and other viewers will be able to respond. Ticket holders will be able to access the videos from Monday 5^th October. You can find out more about the programme here

Book a ticket 

The ticket gives you access to the video presentations, the Virtual Exhibition and you will also be able to attend the live fringe event via Zoom on Thursday 26^th November 7.00 – 8.30pm. Once payment is received, you will be sent a confirmation email with instructions on how to access the recordings. Book here

Booking closes on 21st December. 

Cost

The price of the ticket is the same as it has been for the previous conferences.

ALL Member/ECT/Trainee – £5

Non-Member – £25

Live Fringe Event

This will take place on Thursday 26^th November 7.00-8.30pm via Zoom. All ticket holders will be sent the link. This will be an opportunity for greater interaction. You will be able to meet the presenters and discuss the presentations with other attendees as well as network in the breakout rooms. The raffle of exhibitor prizes will take place.

Virtual Exhibition and Raffle

There will be a Virtual Exhibition in the form of a video presentation with information about publishers and service providers of primary language materials. You will be able to ask questions about the resources and the exhibitors will be able to respond. In some cases, discount codes will be available for purchasing their resources. The exhibition will be accessed via the same link as the presentations. Many of the exhibitors have offered prizes for the live raffle. To enter the raffle, it is necessary to watch all the presentations to collect the hidden letters. The raffle will be drawn at the live fringe event on the 26^th of November.

ALL Membership Offer

All participants will be given a code to obtain a 10% discount on future ALL membership.

I’m excited to be speaking once more at The Language Show 2025. Held annually, this three day event has latterly been held online and this year comprises nearly 90 sessions.

My session is entitled Animal Magic or Animania. details below.

It’s a bit daunting to be kicking off Friday, and in fact the whole event, in the For Language Teachers thread; however I’ve done it before and know that the number that attend live is always much smallere than those who have signed up and will watch later. In fact, that’s exactly what I do!

At £13.50 for access to the whole three days live and also on playback for about 11 months, a ticket is very good value when there is such a variety of sessions in three threads:
*For people who love languages – Talks, tasters, entertainment and insights
*For language teachers – CPD for teachers in primary, secondary, HE, FE, adult
*For language professionals – Interpreters, translators and those who want to put their languages to work.

You can find out more on the website where you can also buy tickets

Here are some of the sessions I’ve picked out as interesting me. One’s even caught the eye of my [non linguist] husband!

Here are my notes from Language World 2025 held in Kenilworth this last weekend.

Hopefully they will act an aide memoire to those that attended and offer a taste of what was said to those who didn’t. Thank you to all the speakers for their excellent presentations. I’ve been left with much to consider and action.

Just returned from a wonderful few days in Köln/Cologne at Practical Pedagogies conference. The conference was held at St George’s School and, as the name suggests, was full of practical sessions led by research and pedagogy.

I was privileged to be asked to present, and I’ll share my presentation and tell you all about it in the next post.

Taking out my own slot, I had the opportunity to attend 7 other sessions plus the keynote and endnote. As usual, I attempted to sketchnote my way through the conference.

Sketchnotes are a visual way of capturing ideas on a page. They use words, boxes/clouds, arrows, and simple doodles to organize information. To find out more about the science behind it, you can have a look at my presentation at PracPed18 https://lisibo.com/2016/11/pracped16-sketchnoting-for-beginners/

Below are scanned copies of the #sketchnotes from #PracPed24. Hope they give you a taste of the sessions that I attended. They were all thought provoking, inspiring, practical and immediately actionable. Enjoy!

After a six year hiatus, Practical Pedagogies returns in 2024. To say I was excited when Russel first floated the idea would be an understatement!

Practical Pedagogies is a conference like no other. Over to Russel Tarr to explain:

Educational conferences can be prohibitively expensive for ordinary teachers, and often focus on abstract theory rather than real-world ways of immediately improving classroom practice. In contrast, “Practical Pedagogies” believes the best training is delivered by practising teachers, sharing effective and creative strategies and resources at an affordable price.

Three successful Practical Pedagogies conferences took place in 2015, 2016 and 2018 at the International School of Toulouse, France and at St. George’s British International School Cologne. At each event, teachers from all over the world delivered upwards of 100 sessions in a vibrant, friendly and enriching event over two days. Lunches, refreshments, and evening gatherings provided social opportunities for carrying on the conversations with old friends and new acquaintances.

After a COVID-imposed hiatus, we hope that the next conference in November 2024, once more in Cologne, will be the biggest and best so far… and delegates will be encouraged to purchase their tickets from March onwards.

Russel Tarr, lead organiser

Having been at all three previous conferences I immediately signed up to present and am looking forward to talking about A few of our favourite things! Activities for the Primary Languages classroom

You can find out what I thought about and learned from the conference in 2015, 2016 and 2018 by clicking on the dates and reading my reflections accompanied by my sketchnotes (subject of my 2026 presentation!) If you want to know what others think, check out the testimonials here including mine. I stand by my assertion that you can’t leave unchallenged and unchanged! One of the things I particularly value is that, as it is an international conference, you get a wider view of education and a different perspective on familiar topics. I love picking up wisdom from other education systems and curricula as well as debating the current issues facing us all.

This year I’m looking forward to finding out about Using Thinking Maps to enhance instructional experiences for variable learners, learning more about AI (no point burying your head in the sand!) and also catching up with Laura ‘smiley’ Riley-Genton who has had a busy time since I last saw her (getting married, becoming a Mum and changing job!) and attending her session More than just a language:ideas to teach foreign languages to mixed nationalities. I’m also looking forward to catching up with Carol Allen although I unfortunately won’t be able to attend her session as I’m speaking at the same time. You can check out the programme for yourself here.

125 workshops have been confirmed, led by educators from all over the world – including me! – and delegates can pick 8 to attend over the two days. There are a limited number of Early Bird tickets available if you’re quick! It’s worth it as the price rises after that.

I’m also looking forward to visiting Cologne/Köln once more.It’s a wonderful city and this time I can even speak almost passable German! I’d love to see you there. Lisa x

Each meeting and conference I attend, I take my notebook and pens, and attempt to sketchnote proceedings. It helps me listen carefully (and sit still!), enables me to recall what was said after the event in a way that taking notes doesn’t, and also enables me to share with those who weren’t there.

I do my notes live and therefore tweeted them as soon as the sessions were over – you may have seen them on Twitter/X over the weekend, but I like to publish them as a collection after the event. It also enables me to make sure I haven’t missed anything and check I haven’t made glaring errors – like adding an s to the ALL Twitter handle @ALL4Language Oops!

Here they are, in order that they happened!

The annual conference of the Association for Language Learning (ALL) is fast approaching. This year Language World will be held in Kenilworth on Friday 8th and Saturday 9th March. The theme is Language – a unique ingredient of learning.

As the website says:

We will consider together many aspects of education today in multilingual Britain. What is unique about our subject? In what ways does the learning of a language support learners today beyond the classroom – from being a child to becoming an adult? What are the ingredients of a healthy learning experience?

• Culture and International Contact
• Curiosity and Observation
• Connection at a personal level
• Communication through all skills and modalities
• A strong outward looking curriculum and external examinations

Following on from our conference last year we will continue to consider how the brain affects learning and how this can inform curriculum planning, the impact on teaching of the new GCSE and the importance of developing the intercultural agility needed to promote and support tolerance and respect for others. We are living through changing, somewhat challenging times and collaborative work is essential. We all benefit from access to research from around the world and collaboration across the key stages to university or training and jobs post 16 enables progress as we learn from each other. https://www.delegate-reg.co.uk/lw2024/

Keynote speakers include HMI Bianka Zemke and Professor Kate Borthwick, and there are more than 70 talks offered over the two days with something for every type of language learning. You can have a look at the programme here

I’m presenting on Saturday afternoon about how to make International links, something about which I’m really passionate; as a British Council Ambassador for many years and Global Schools Alliance Ambassador I do all I can to promote the value of the global dimension. You can see what I said last year when I shared the importance and impact of international links and global learning at Whitehouse Common Primary.

Whether you attend for one day or for both, I hope to see you in Kenilworth. If you can’t, be sure to follow events on Twitter/X – look out for the hashtag #LW2024 and I’ll try to give you a flavour of the event in a post at the end of March.

This Tuesday (27th June) I’ll be speaking at the L.E.A.D. TSA Hub Online Primary Languages event. Jo Darley has put together a really interesting programme covering learner autonomy, linguistic thinking, “quality first” teaching for all, literature and culture, and the value of supporting and celebrating languages through global communication.

I’m really excited to be taking part. My presentation will be about the benefits of international links and global communication in the primary classroom. As a primary languages teacher, it will be heavily influenced by the impact of my young linguists but also refer to the effect on the whole school.

It’s a full day, online conference starting at 915 and running until 330. You can join live for the whole day, pop in as you can, or watch it all back later with the recording being available for 30 days after the event. As I’ll be teaching all day (until my session) I’ll be doing the latter!

There are still tickets available at this link if you’re interested. If you’re planning on attending, let me know so I can give you a shout out!

It’s nearly time for the annual ALL (Association for Language Learning) conference Language World. I first attended Language World in Oxford many many years ago and it’s remained an important date each year ever since.

After a year online in 2021, Language World returns to being face to face this year. Taking place in Sheffield at The Quays Hotel, it promises to be two days of discussion, thought and learning and I for one am really looking forward to it.

This year the theme is Language Learning for Social Justice, and sessions relate to the theme of ensuring that ALL learners have access to high quality language learning opportunities, irrespective of age, gender, socioeconomic (dis)advantage, mother tongue or heritage.

The programme looks really interesting and I’m particularly looking forward to sessions by:

Hannah White
5.1 Use the work you do to support EAL pupils in the Primary Languages classroom to create an inclusive curriculum and improve teaching and learning for EAL pupils throughout your school

Eleanor Chettle Cully
1.3 Isn’t it time we moved beyond ‘diversity’? Practical strategies for decolonising the primary MFL curriculum

Marion Devons
8.2 Don’t take me out! Why children with SEND or EAL should stay in your language lessons and how all children will benefit (I feel passionately about this as you can see here.)

and this really interesting looking session
4.1 Inspiring Young Multilingual Activists through Digital Technology and the Arts

In fact, there are so many session that interest me that it’s quite tricky choosing sometimes!

I’ll be speaking on Friday at 215 about “Literature”
3.4 Using ‘Literature’ to support Primary Language teaching and learning This session will consider what is meant by ‘literature’ before moving on to explore how it can be used in the primary languages classroom as a great way to support language learning. Whether as a way into a topic, to support phonics or prosody, as a sample text to be adapted or as a way to support inclusion and challenge insularity, allowing learners to see themselves in their learning, literature is a powerful tool in our toolbox.

Want to join me? You can find out how here

Looking forward to seeing you there!

Find out about my experiences at previous Language Worlds by following the links below!

Reflections on Language World 2008
Absorbing Language Learning 2009
Language World 2010 and various posts following including Raising Global Awareness and Creativity talks as well as sessions by Clare Dodd, Liz Black Cynthia Martin Oh, and my session – Bricklaying for beginners!
Language World 2011 – my session Entitled to enjoy Primary Languages and many other sessions by Chris Harte, Jan Lewandowski and Liz Fotheringham
Language World 2014 overview     Session on apps
Language World 2015 in sketchnotes
Language World 2016 in sketchnotes  Session on Sketchnoting
Language World 2017 in sketchnotes
Language World 2018 in sketchnotes My session Using Technology for collaboration 
Sue Cave’s session – Language Detectives Primary Show and Tell
Language World 2019 – The Sketchnotes My session on Supporting learners’ understanding and enjoyment of stories in the primary languages classroom.
I was briefly at Language World 2020 but didn’t blog it as it coincided with a particularly stressful time – including lockdown beginning a few days later!
Language World 2021 My session on Take One Book v2 My sketchnotes