primary languages – ¡Vámonos!
 

Category: primary languages

I’ve noticed quite a few opportunities for upskilling in recent days, shared by the various cultural organisations, and thought I’d share some for those who may not have seen them. Some opportunities are cross phase and others are phase specific with several specifically aimed at primary practitioners.

consejeria
First from the Consejería de Educación

SPANISH DAY FOR TEACHERS IN LEEDS – Sat, 16th March: The Spanish Embassy Education Office, the University of Leeds, and the Junta de Castilla y León are organizing a Spanish day in Leeds aimed at teachers of Spanish and future teachers from secondary, university, and further education.

There will be presentations and workshops with practical ideas for the Spanish class. A Spanish lunch will be served.

Registration is free, but places are limited (on a first come, first served basis). Information and free registration: https://bit.ly/spanish-day-in-leeds

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Series of online workshops: from February 6 to March 19, 2024. 4 independent and online workshops.

-Next workshop, Saturday, February 27, 2024 (16:30-17:30): «Elemental querido Watson: misterios y enigmas en la clase de ELE», organized jointly with Andalucia TRADE and with the collaboration of CERVANTES ESCUELA INTERNACIONAL.

More information and free registration (before the 25th February): https://bit.ly/talleres-andalucia-feb-marzo-2024

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Face-to-face training days in collaboration with Edinumen:

– Saturday, March 2, 2024 (9:30-13:00) in Newcastle, organized jointly with the University of Newcastle and with the collaboration of the University of Alicante.

– Tuesday, March 5, 2024 (16:00-17:30), in London, in collaboration with the Instituto Cervantes.

Free registration and programme: https://www.educacionyfp.gob.es/reinounido/convocatorias-programas/formacion-profesorado/historico-formaciones/edinumen-marzo-2024.html

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Grants for an immersion course in Spain (Ávila, Segovia and Santander) – Summer 2024

14 one-week immersion courses in July or August 2024 in Ávila, Segovia or Santander aimed at British/Irish teachers of Spanish.

The grant covers the course, accommodation and meals, as well as the cultural programme.  The grant does not cover the journey to Spain or the return to the UK. Travel and/or health insurance is also not included

This call is not for Spanish nationals. Application period will be announced from March.

Further information and programmes: https://www.educacionyfp.gob.es/reinounido/convocatorias-programas/formacion-profesorado/historico-formaciones/cursos-verano-espana-uned-uimp-2024

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Immersion course in Santiago de Compostela (Spain), April 2014

Registration is now open for the Spanih teacher training course “Curso de actualización para el profesorado de ELE: lengua, cultura y didáctica” organised by the University of Santiago de Compostela.

Details

Dates: 8th – 12th April 2024

Number of hours: 20 (face-to face)

Contents:

•    Nuevas tecnologías en el aula de ELE

•    Dinámicas de proyecto, actividades cooperativas y pedagogías innovadoras

•    Lengua y cultura española( literatura, cine y música)

•    El Camino de Santiago en el aula el ELE

•    Actividades culturales incluidas en el curso:

•    Visita guiada a la ciudad monumental

•    Visita guiada al Patrimonio Histórico artístico de la Universidad

More information about registration, prices and accomodation:  gene.gonzalez@usc.es

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Immersion and methodology courses in Palencia, Salamanca, Burgos, Valladolid, Burgos and Segovia. Different dates throughout March, July, August and October 2024. https://www.educacionyfp.gob.es/reinounido/convocatorias-programas/formacion-profesorado/historico-formaciones/2024-cursos-mester.html

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From the Goethe Institut:

·  Let’s Get Started with German in Primary School (Berlin, 21.04.2024- 27.04.2024): This opportunity is fully funded and aimed at non- specialist primary teachers and their headteachers (England/ state school  only), who intend to introduce German or  strengthen the status of German at their schools. The programme consists of two strands:  A combined language and pedagogical training course (A1/A2level) and a specially curated incentive trip. Participants can apply for this fully funded course by submitting a motivational letter (application deadline: 04.03.2024).
 
·  German Teachers’ Day for secondary school teachers (Saturday, 24 February 2024): Join us for the German Teachers’ Day “Engaging Learners – Keep them keen” in London, organised by the Goethe-Institut in cooperation with ALL Association for Language Learning. Registration Deadline: 12.02.2024. 
 
·  Action-Oriented Teaching – Practical Approaches and Strategies (Online professional development): Discover the advantages of digital tools to actively engage students in this practice-oriented online course. Register by 12 February 2024. 

·  DLL – Deutsch Lehren Lernen: New courses starting in March: Would you like to expand or refresh your didactic knowledge, try out new things and expand your teaching skills? Two DLL courses (Deutsch Lehren Lernen) will be starting in March: DLL 2 “How do you learn German as a foreign language?” and DLL4 “Tasks, exercises, interaction”. Registration deadline: 27.02.2024. 

And from the UK German Connection:

Applications for Professional Enrichment Programme are now open
The Professional Enrichment Programme offers qualified UK teachers a funded opportunity to visit a German school for 1-2 weeks during the 2023-24 school year to develop skills and knowledge through intercultural exchange.
 
The programme is open to teachers of all disciplines and you don’t need to have an existing link with Germany to take part. Teachers can either visit their partner school or be matched with a German host school.
 
Application deadline: 1 March 2024 
 
On Tuesday, 27 February at 4.30pm we are hosting a Q&A webinar to answer your questions and provide guidance. You can register to attend via our website.
 
More information: https://ukgermanconnection.org/pp/programmes/professional-enrichment-programme/
 

institut français
From the Institut Français:

2024 French Summer School for Primary School Teachers

Location: Alliance Française de Normandie, Rouen, France
Date: Sunday 28 July 2024 to Sunday 4 August 2024
Eligibility: Primary School Teachers teaching French
Content: General French language group courses will be offered (20h) as well as 2 workshops focused on French phonics. This summer school is intended to help teachers upskill their proficency in the language in order to feel more confident in the classroom. Please note that the course will not cover the pedagogy of teaching French and will not provide any teaching materials or techniques.
Fees: Training fees, breakfast, dinner and accommodation in a French host-family are covered by the Institut français du Royaume-Uni. Travel expenses will be incurred by the participant.

More information and registration here

And finally the Qatar Foundation are offering the following opportunity for teachers of Arabic:

Arabic Language Teacher Training Bursary Programme

QFI will begin accepting applications for its 2024-2025 Arabic Language Teacher Training Bursary Programme in mid-February 2024. The bursary will provide £2,000 towards the costs of a language teacher training programme that offers placement in the Arabic language. In addition to these funds, QFI will provide accepted candidates additional support that includes mentorship and attendance to CPD events and conferences.

Interested applicants can apply here in mid-Feb or contact ukarabic@qfi.org with any questions.

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Hopefully there’s something there that has caught someone’s eye. Perhaps I’ll highlight some other CPD opportunities in another post in the near future. There are certainly a few ALL opportunities in the next few weeks!

Yesterday I had the great pleasure of presenting at the PSB MFL conference via Zoom.

My presentation was entitled More than words with the subtitle Language learning is about more than learning lists of vocabulary. In it, I discussed my ‘idea of what ‘list of ingredients’ for language learning, particularly in the primary context. After discussing OFSTED’s 3 pillars and 3Is, I moved on to present my 7Cs!

And what are my 7Cs?
Context
Consolidation
Confidence
Communication
Culture
Celebration
Connection

I was thrilled with the response to my presentation and want to thank all the attendees for their kind words; I was floating on air all day despite an afternoon of stircrazy 10 year olds who’d not been out to play all day followed by parents evening!

If you’re interested in what else I shared, my slides can be viewed below.

What do you think? Have I missed a C? Let me know!

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!

After the success of last year’s competition, the bSmall Young Language Learner Award returns.

This year the theme is…

Children aged 6-11 are invited to submit a story written in a language other than English. On the website https://bsmall.co.uk/ylla  you can find template, notes for teachers/ parents/ tutors and a downloadable entry form for entrants to submit the finished story.

Winners will receive books from the bSmall and the opportunity to have their work published in PDF form on the website.
The closing date for entries is Monday 5th June and winners will be announced on June 26th.

You can read about last year’s contest and see the top three entries in this post

Once more I’ve been asked to be on the judging panel. I’m really looking forward to reading all the entries. So, if you’re looking for a way of celebrating the coronation in class, or you fancy supporting your class/children in writing a story about celebrating a festival, a birthday or special event, why not join in the challenge.

Good luck!

Today at The Language Show it was my pleasure to deliver a presentation entitled A few of our favourite things.

During a packed 45 minutes I highlighted as many of the things that my pupils say they enjoy as I could. I do talk very fast but as is often the case, I had far more to say than there was time to share.

As promised you can find my slides below including links to things I mentioned such as the songs and games. If you have any questions, please feel free to post them in the comments below. And if you bought a ticket, you can access my presentation (along with many many more!) on catch up. I’m looking forward to doing just that over the next week or so.

Clickable links from presentation –

Slide 2 Spanish video
Slide 7 Spanish games
Slide 8 Youtube playlist including minibook tutorial
Slide 10 Miguel y Sabo video
Slide 12 Isabella Springmuhl Tejada – Intro – https://youtu.be/ZypUTsEh1-o Sp/Eng explanation https://youtu.be/nbwc2DYofkI and intervie https://youtu.be/TH3g1qe_kko
Slide 15 Yummy Yucky PPT
Slide 17 Songs (clockwise from top left)- Hola a todos Los días Uno dos tres choc ¿Te gusta el helado? No se habla de Bruno Vuela vuela Hola ¿Cómo estás? Los partes del cuerpo
Slide 18 Hello to all the children of the world Hands of the World -How far The Hello Song
Slide 22 Strange animals post
Slide 24 Señor Cabeza Naranja slideshare Storymaking slideshare
Slide 39 Tweets https://twitter.com/whcps/status/1446082787786756096?s=20 https://twitter.com/whcps/status/1446082787786756096?s=20 https://twitter.com/whcps/status/1446100113462546442?s=20
Slide 47 Lost Worlds Language Portraits ISA Padlet https://padlet.com/nocilla13/ISA WBD Padlet https://padlet.com/MrsWoodDHT/zfwygb46bn62jf6u Portfolio https://padlet.com/nocilla13/spport21
Slide 49 – Around the World in 80 Books Padlet
Slide 52 Hungry Caterpillar in five languages
Slide 54 Erasmus + blog
Slide 56 Christmas research

Things to add –

I ran out of time to share about our amazing Erasmus+ project that has certainly been one of the children at WCPS’s favourite things over the last three years. Hopefully one day I’ll get to present a whole session on it (or record one of my own!) but until then, please have a look at the project blog from the point of view of our school here and the whole project blog (which was written by the Greek partners) here.

As I shared earlier this year, bSmall relaunched their Young Language Learner Award this summer after several years break. The award invited young learners to submit a story in a language that they are learning on the theme of ADVENTURE.

I was so excited to be asked to judge the award this year with Catherine from Little Linguist . There were lots of entries, some from individuals and some done in class, in French Spanish and one in German. It was hard to whittle them down to our favourites but we all agreed on the winner and runners up after some discussion!

In reverse order, here are the winners…

The judges liked the simplicity of Adam’s story about a spaceman.
The judges thought this was really well illustrated , and that the story and message were very cute! 
The judges felt that Juliet’s story about a week in the life of Spot el guepardo as he goes on holiday was beautifully presented with clear bright illustrations featuring the eponymous Spot!

If you click on the links you can read enjoy the entries too.

Well done Adam, Alexandra and Juliet! I hope you enjoy your prizes and the glory of winning!

I’m pleased to be say that b small are bringing back their Young Language Learning Award. They ran this competition in 2014 and 2017, and this time the theme is ADVENTURE.

The competition is open to primary aged learners (6-11) who are encouraged to send in a four-page story or comic (two sides of A4) written in a language of their choice, other than a mother tongue.

To enter children need the following documents that are downloadable from the website

They should think about what they’d like to write about. It’s a good idea to choose a subject that interests them as they need to be motivated to write! The finished piece can’t be longer than two A4 pages and can be submitted digitally (scan the story and email) or by post.

If you want to do it as a class, the teacher can submit entries with a single cover form as long as each story is marked clearly with the child’s name, language being learned and their mother tongue to make judging fair!

On the website there are hints and tips as well as a more detailed explanation of what to do including where to send your entries.

Entries close on Mon 01 August and the winners will be announced on the European Day of Languages, Mon 26 September.

b small will publish the winning entry as a PDF on their website, and the winner will also receive 10 language learning books from b small, with 2nd and 3rd runners up receiving 5 books and 2 books respectively.

Find out more on the b small YLLA website https://bsmall.co.uk/ylla

On Saturday I was once more at InstitutoVicente Cañada Blanch in London for the annual Talleres de español run by the Consejería de Educacción. It had only been 9 months since I was last there as the 2021 edition was postponed thanks to the C word and I was once more privileged to be asked to speak. More of that later!

The day started with a keynote to get you thinking by Crista Hazell who talked about The Joy of Language Learning.

My tweets at the time summarise the bits I particularly liked:

Following this, I attended a marvellously active and fun session led by Eva Rodríguez Moya entitled «JugaÑol: el poder del juego como herramienta de aprendizaje» during which she shared a number of ideas and techniques that are used in her classroom to enable learners to recall and use Spanish as the language of communication. I loved the energy and pace of the delivery as well as the great ideas, and it was good to see that others use gesture as a key way of embedding vocabulary and structures. I will certainly be using “Hola Año x” with my classes – a simple way to keep the class on their toes. I recommend you check out Eva’s presentation when it’s available!

My presentation was entitled A few of our favourite things and highlighted as many of the things that my pupils say they enjoy as I could fit into my time slot! As is often the case, I had far more to say than there was time to share, and below you can find my slides (minus a couple that can’t be shared which unfortunately means you can’t see the videos of my class retelling El Nabo Enorme or reciting Doña Pito Piturra)

I did manage to share that I see myself not a Spanish teacher but as a languages teacher and that whilst the language in which my pupils should have made ‘substantial progress’ by the end of Y6 is Spanish, I am also teaching them how to be language learners which is just as important if not more so. What i ran out of time to share was the range of things that we do to celebrate languages as well as our amazing Erasmus+ project that is just coming to an end. Perhaps I can share that next time… hint hint 😉 You can see the slides anyway.

If you have any questions feel free to leave a comment. I’d be happy to answer!

Thanks to the rail strike I couldn’t stay for the afternoon sessions but I did enjoy a lovely lunch and a good chat with lots of enthusiastic joyful people. at the end of the day, I shared the tweet below which I feel summed up my experience. Here’s to the rainbow unicorns! 🌈🦄

Find out more https://www.delegate-reg.co.uk/lw2022/

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 DoddLiz 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 HarteJan 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

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