Thank you to all the children from North East primary schools who took part in the Calligrams Celebration, as part of Express Yourself: North East Festival of Languages 2025. 1,620 children aged 7-11 from 30 schools (including 10 Newcastle schools) took part and drew images with associated words in different languages. Schools submitted a selection of these creations, which have been made into two e-books, one for 7-9 year olds and one for 9-11 year olds.
- Click here to download the 7-9 year olds Calligrams Celebration ebook
- Click here to download the 9-11 year olds Calligrams Celebration ebook
The Calligrams are in ! from Festival schools around the region (and from a partner school in Granada!) They include a wealth of languages, and of imagery, but mostly they are full of personality, which is what the judges love.
Some are thoughtful, many of them are witty, brilliantly conceived, and beautifully executed. AI is present in the entries and makes a polished product, but you can’t beat real children’s work with pencils!
E-books for two volumes (ages 7-9 and 9-11) are available, so that teachers can share them on screen in schools, and online with families and friends to keep the celebration going!
Hope to see more next year!
Steven Fawkes, Calligrams Celebration Lead, Association for Language Learning North East
Some examples of the calligrams received from primary schools
Further information
Just over a hundred years ago, at the end of the First World War, the French poet Guillaume Appollinaire published a set of poems called Calligrammes in which he used ink and fonts to draw recognisable shapes with connected words.
Primary children were invited to make their own calligrams, using words and/or phrases they have learnt in any language other than English, as part of a Calligrams Celebration during the Festival of Languages 2025 from January to the end of March. Schools submitted a selection from their pupils’ creations to be added to the ebooks. There were 2 categories – 7-9 years old and 9-11 years old, and invite teachers to select a theme that fits in with their schemes.
What is a calligram? The words might draw the outline of the image, or fill in the silhouette of the image. The key things are that they should be related to the image, they should be easy to read (neat and not over-elaborate), and they should be spelled correctly. They can be created by hand or with a computer.
How can we use calligrams to enhance teaching and learning a language? Pupils are introduced to them in Y3 Literacy in England and so it’s a concept with which they may are already be familiar. In Y3 they look at examples of calligrams and then have a go at making their own using ICT.
Acknowledgements
- Special thanks to Steven Fawkes at Association for Language Learning North East for running this competition and to Crista Hazell, Association for Language Learning, for the creation of the ebooks
- Thank you to all the children and schools who took part
Express Yourself: North East Festival of Languages is part-funded by the North East Combined Authority
