With over 180 North East schools registering so far for FREE activities and more than 24,000 children and young people across the region signed up to participate, this year’s Express Yourself: North East Festival of Languages is set to be our biggest and best! Most of the activities take place in March, so we are expecting a lot more involvement by 31st March when this year’s Festival ends. Register now to be part of the Festival.
Read on to find out about remaining places at FREE in-person events in March, creative projects for schools, unlimited participation in languages and careers webinars and access to pre-recorded language activities, as well as activities for adults and communities.
In-person events in March for North East schools
Although many in-person events are fully booked, there are still some places available – click on the links to find out more and register
- Welcome to the Arab World for middle/secondary schools 12.30-3pm on 4th March at Newcastle Civic Centre (3 school places left for 30 pupils each) Register interest by emailing info@expressyourselfne.com
- Language Treasures at Great North Museum – teacher-led activities available in March
- Language and culture taster sessions with Newcastle University available during March for secondary/6th Form pupils
- Welcome to Germany and the German speaking world primary sessions (morning) secondary (afternoon) on 20th March at Durham University
- Language activities at Northumbria University (Y12 French, German, Spanish learners) only 5 German pupil places left for 2-4pm on 13th March
Creative projects for North East schools
- Mother Tongue Other Tongue children’s writing in their home languages and those they are learning – open for submissions to 22nd March, certificates for all submissions
- Peace Cranes – schools have until 6th March to submit children’s origami birds with messages of peace written on them to be part of a regional exhibition
- Festival Song – Happy (registration is closed) resources are available now and schools and groups can submit their performances in different languages by 28th March to be part of a regional compilation performance video
Unlimited participation – but schools need to register to take part
We also have a range of activities that are for unlimited numbers of participants and which you can register on the individual Festival event/activity pages:
Three languages and careers webinars for middle/secondary aged children
- Where can languages take you? Y8/9 webinar with British Council 9-10am on 11th March
- One language good, two languages better. June Lowery-Kingston KS3/4 webinar: 1.30-2.30pm on 21st March
- Futbol Lingo webinar for schools on languages and careers in football 9-10am on 26th March
Pre-recorded workshop activities:
- French Puppet Shows (ages 3-11) available now until 31st March with teacher resources
- Lingotot activities (ages 3-11) available now for French, Spanish, German, Italian and Ukrainian with teacher resources
- Fun with Japanese (ages 5-11 years) available 1-31st March with teaching resources
- Exploring and celebrating indigenous African languages and culture (ages 5-16) available now until 31st March with activity pack, videos and teaching resources for schools, youth groups and communities
Activities for adults and communities
- Free Italian language taster for adults with La Dolce Lingua in Newcastle 3pm Mondays, 1pm Thursdays throughout March (Register) Sign up to attend one free 45-minute taster session in Italian for beginner or intermediate. You will be taught by a native speaker who is a qualified tutor teaching Italian to adult learners.
- Heritage storytelling – our shared roots: Community event 4.00-5.30pm on 20th March, Kittiwake Trust Multilingual Library, Gateshead Families and members of the region’s diverse communities are invited to share their heritage stories and memories of their country of origin and its culture in this community event at the Multilingual Library.
- Multilingual Library Breaking Bread event (adults) 2-4pm on 21st March Members of the region’s diverse communities are invited to exchange stories and songs about – and tasting – breads in many languages and creating an artwork
Further Festival information and links
There are lots of other free activities and resources available as part of the Festival that you can find out about at the links below.
- Click here to download the full Festival programme
- Visit the What’s On page here (for latest updates about what is still available to get involved with)
- Follow us on social media to find out the latest news: X (twitter), instagram and facebook