It has been a privilege to host and co-ordinate the Express Yourself: North East Festival of Languages for the third year running. Thousands of children and young people have participated so far and there are still opportunities to get involved all the way to the end of March. There are free activities and resources available for both early years and primary age children, as well as secondary and sixth form young people.
There is a summary of both below and we hope as many people as possible will take advantage of these great opportunities to inspire children and young people to learn languages, to find out more about different cultures and communities and to widen their perspectives about the world and opportunities available to them.
Some activities are fully booked, but there is a lot that primary schools and early years children can still get involved in over the next week – at home, in school or in the community.
There is an event on 27th March for teachers to make the most of multilingualism in the classroom. Schools can access two free online language platforms up to the 31 March.
There are the Big 3 activitites – the Festival Song singing in many languges, Mother Tongue Other Tongue (creative writing in home and learned languages) and the poster competition, Where can Languages take you?
There are also some great pre-recorded fun languages and cultural activities only available in March to do with classes or at home, as well as a range of language games and challenges and a wide range of teaching and learning resources. There are also some national competitions open too for ages 7+.
Click here to see what’s available for primary and early years and get involved up to 31st March.
There are spaces left for the language and careers webinar on 29th March and some language taster sessions for pupils in secondaries/6th Forms in Newcastle the North East up to the end of the month. There is an online event for teachers on 27th March about making the most of multilingualism in schools, as well as limited time offers to access digital platforms and online language resources (to 31st March only). There are also and also the Big 3 projects – Festival Song, Mother Tongue Other Tongue creative writing activity and the Where can languages take you poster competition.
There is a range of fun language games and challenges that can be done at home, school or in the community. There are also national competitions which end in April, including the French Pop Video Competition and Anthea Bell Prize for Young Translators.