With 8 days left of this year’s Festival of Languages, there are still events available to attend, activities to get involved with and resources that can be accessed by pupils in secondary schools and 6th Forms in the North East. You can see the full What’s On programme here, but find out below about the activities and resources available for children in secondaries and sixth forms and some which can be accessed at home or in communities.
Secondary/6th Forms – Live sessions in March still available for pupils – book now
- Spaces left for Year 8 and 9 classes for the online webinar on languages and careers, Where can languages take you? 9.15-10am on 29th March
- Spaces left for pupils of secondary/6th forms with Newcastle University online language and culture taster sessions (flexible dates in March) 30-45 minute virtual taster sessions in languages, including: Arabic, Bulgarian, Catalan, Chinese, Croatian, Czech, Dutch, French, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Lithuanian, Polish, Portuguese, Slovak, Spanish. Sessions are arranged directly with you and tailored to your needs.
- Spaces available for AS/A Level French and Spanish learners for an in-person half day activity: The Language Student Experience with Northumbria University for secondary/6th form pupils (flexible dates in March 2023)
Live online events for teachers
- Celebrating Multilingualism in schools (online) 4-5.30pm 27th March – Promoting multilingualism in schools tapping into pupil’s multilingual expertise, with Newcastle University
Limited time offers to access digital language platforms for NE schools
- Free 2 week trial of thisislanguage online platform with lots of language learning and teaching resources and a special booklet of language resources. Trial period ends 31st March
- LanguageNut North East competition for schools – online language activities and resources with free online subscription up to the end of March, plus NE competition for schools – ends 31st March
Language games and challenges for the classroom
- What’s my Language? Video with booklet for responses – film of Newcastle young people speaking their home languages – guess the language, country and what 3 words they are saying
- French, German and Spanish escape room challenge for KS3 students (based on Britain’s Got Talent show)
- Games for the classroom or at home/community: Lara’s Language Journey Across Europe interactive booklet, Secret Agents Language Challenge
All schools can participate in the Big 3 projects
- Festival Song, Just One World (ages 7-18) – sing, sign, perform and record your children singing this song (recordings, music and vocal arrangements and translations and recordings available in different languages). Schools can submit entries up to 31st March
- Mother Tongue Other Tongue – deadline tomorrow 24th march! Young people (7-18) write in their Mother Tongue either an original poem, or their memory of a poetic text (a song, nursery rhyme, lullaby, poem) from their early life. Other Tongue (OT) is for everyone who is learning a language. Young people write an original poem in a language that is not their first language. All entries will receive a certificate and we will share selected pieces in a digital anthology. Entries by 24th March
- Where can languages take you? Poster competition (ages 7-18) where pupils create a poster which explains to other learners how knowing a second or third language can influence their future. Submissions by 31st March
Free classroom resources available anytime
- Around the world education packs from British Council (Arab world, Poland, Indonesia, India, Mexico, China)
- French resources for the classroom – children’s books, magazines, comics, films, music, teach and learn French resources (Culturetheque) and IF Cinema – films, animation
- Spanish resources for the classroom – films, documentaries, animations, posters, stickers, songs for primaries, stories
Competitions
- Francophonie quiz register by 17th March to participate between 18 and 26 March – for learners of French
- French Pop Video Competition (ages 7-18) pupils write and original song/rap and record it as part of a national competition (ends 30 April)
- Anthea Bell Prize for Young Translators KS3-5 French, German, Italian, Mandarin and Spanish, with classroom resources (closes 3 April)
