Children across the North East can unlock a lifelong love of languages as a festival favourite prepares to celebrate its fifth birthday.
Images from Festival events in March 2024:
Welcome to Japan Day at Durham University and Oriental Museum
Arab World Day at Newcastle Civic Centre
Welcome to China events with Confucius Institute at Newcastle University
More than 37,500 young people, from the ages of 3 to 18, took part in the pioneering Express Yourself: North East Festival of Languages earlier this year.
The inclusive event — running for three months from January to March — returns in 2025 with a raft of free events, activities and resources focused on celebrating diverse languages and cultures across the region.
Born out of a need to engage with children during the pandemic, Express Yourself has engaged more than 89,000 young people so far, providing inspiration to take up languages, build their skills and confidence and to prepare for life in a global society.
Declan Baharini, Chief Executive Officer of International Newcastle and Festival Coordinator, explains:
“Registration for 2025’s North East Festival of Languages is open now!
We’re all about promoting the value of languages and inspiring a future generation of linguists.
Our packed three-month programme encourages children across the North East to build their skills and confidence and we aim to nurture curiosity about the wider world.
Beyond that our Festival is about broadening horizons and widening the opportunities and career choices for our young people. We’ve been able to build some fantastic connections between schools and universities and local, regional and national organisations to support languages and intercultural awareness.
There is nothing else like this in the UK and we’re very proud of what Express Yourself adds to our region’s rich cultural mix.“
The first Express Yourself festival was staged in 2021 in response to the pandemic and to combat the drop-off in language teaching and learning. Newcastle City of Languages — a city-based partnership of local, regional and national organisations convened by International Newcastle to promote language learning and teaching — delivered online activities to more than 11,000 children and young people. Now Declan and her partners are gearing up for a fifth annual festival after 37,633 pupils engaged with 2024’s Express Yourself programme of events.
“There’s a chance to dive into multilingual creative projects and enjoy engaging pre-recorded workshops across three months from January to March,” added Declan. “There’s an amazing choice of in-person and online live events in March, based around world cultures and languages, as well as languages and careers. We encourage schools, community schools and groups to select a range of activities across the three months of Express Yourself to maximise the benefits for the region’s children and young people.”
All activities and resources are free with schools and colleges across the region encouraged to sign up now and tap into multiple opportunities for children and young people to learn through languages.
Sarah Edgar, Education Consultant, Newcastle City Council says:
“The Festival of Languages is a unique opportunity for schools to instil a love of language learning.
It gives children and young people a reason and inspiration for studying languages at school while celebrating the rich linguistic and cultural diversity of our region.
At Newcastle City Council, we aim to foster this passion and the Festival is a key initiative in achieving this goal.
It provides a vibrant platform for promoting cultural understanding and enhancing language education in our schools.
We are fortunate to have International Newcastle running the Festival, which is nationally recognised as an exemplar event, showcasing best practices in these areas.”
The fifth annual Express Yourself: North East Festival of Languages will encourage children to express themselves in their home languages as well as the languages they’re learning. Fun activities facilitate conversations and intercultural understanding within schools and communities. Children and young people can participate in multilingual activities or those focussed on specific languages and cultures, including Bangla, Japanese, Chinese, Arabic and African languages, as well as European languages such as German, French and Spanish.
“I’d urge teachers to start registering through the Festival 2025 website, as soon as possible,” adds Declan. “Participating schools automatically receive the British Council’s International School Award (ISA) Foundation Certificate. In 2024, 169 North East schools were awarded certificates — festival activities contribute to schools progressing through the ISA levels which, in turn, provide a framework to embed internationalism across the curriculum. Participation can also support Schools of Sanctuary work.”
For further information on the 2025 Express Yourself: North East Festival of Languages and to register for activities from January explore the website and What’s On page and follow the Festival via Instagram, Facebook and X.
ENDS
Notes to editors
- Express Yourself: North East Festival Of Languages celebrates its fifth birthday in 2025
- It is a recognition of diverse languages and cultures in the North East and the region’s connections to the world
- The festival raises awareness of other cultures, inspiring children and young people to take up languages, building their skills and confidence and helping prepare them for life in a global society.
- Its reach extends across Northumberland, North Tyneside, South Tyneside, Newcastle, Gateshead and Durham (and internationally through remote activities/learning)
- 11,000 children attended the first festival (which was online as a response to the pandemic) — within four years that figure has risen to 37,633 (in person and remotely)
- The festival promotes free activities, events and resources for children and young people in schools and community groups to inspire them to try new and creative ways to enjoy languages and cultures, as well as understand the opportunities that speaking different languages can open up for their future lives and careers
- Creative multilingual music, art and writing projects are running and online resources are available from January-March, with most live events taking place throughout March 2025. Registration is open now.
For further information or to request an interview please contact Simon Rushworth at Allies Group on 07949 845848 or email simon@allies-group.com