We are delighted to share the Mother Tongue Other Tongue 2026 e-book, a digital anthology showcasing North East children and young people’s writing and creativity. 3,960 children and young people from 30 schools took part in this creative multilingual project as part of our Express Yourself: North East Festival of Languages this year. The anthology includes poems written in 46 different languages spoken at home or being learned.
Click here to read the 2026 Mother Tongue Other Tongue Digital Anthology
The submissions of writing from children for Mother Tongue Other Tongue and the selection shared in the digital anthology, demonstrates their creativity and reflects their memories, new experiences, as well as things that matter to them. They include original pieces, remembered poems and songs. The children explain why they chose to write the pieces and some accompany them with drawings. Some are moving and thought provoking, others will make you smile.
The languages which feature in the 2026 anthology are: Albanian, Amharic, Arabic, Bangla, Bemba, Bengali, Bisaya, Chinese (simplified and Mandarin), Dutch, English, Farsi, French, Gaelic, German, Greek, Igbo, Ijaw, Japanese, Kannada, Korean, Kurdish Sorani, Luganda, Malayalam, Maori, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Punjabi, Romani, Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Spanish, Tagalog, Tamil, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, Urdu, Vietnamese, Yoruba and Zulu.
Registered schools received a teaching resource pack to support them to engage pupils in creating their pieces. North East schools submitted a selection of children and young people’s poems, song lyrics or remembered pieces in their home language (Mother Tongue) or original pieces in a language they are learning (Other Tongue). The anthology includes examples from schools across the region. All schools received a certificate for taking part.
Mother Tongue Other Tongue was hosted by International Newcastle, led by Project Coordinator Crista Hazell and supported by the Association of Language Learning North East and staff and Student Language Ambassadors from Newcastle University’s Language Resource Centre.
It is an immense privilege to see the range of languages spoken across the North East alongside creativity and a range of voices as part of Mother Tongue Other Tongue 2026. The digital anthology is a beautiful piece filled with languages, joy, imagination, reflection and ingenuity.
I am grateful to the teachers and teaching assistants who find time in busy classrooms and curricula to hold space for this important project.
I hope you enjoy looking through the Mother Tongue Other Tongue digital anthology encapsulating pieces from 46 languages from nearly 4000 participants.
Well done to all the young writers who took part in the Mother Tongue, Other Tongue celebration 2026. It’s great to see the range of languages we have in the region, to be proud of, and to see how young people express themselves in such diverse and creative ways!
A word of thanks, of course, to all of the families and teachers who support the young people to explore the cultural wealth of all of these languages!
Mother Tongue Other Tongue continues to be a wonderful addition to our Festival of Languages and a joyous celebration of children’s writing and creativity in the North East.
It goes beyond the individual to families, communities and schools and helps build understanding of children and young people’s diverse languages and cultures.
We are delighted to be sharing this year’s digital anthology with the region, UK and the world.
Acknowledgements
- Thank you to all the children who participated and shared their thoughts, feelings and passions
- Thank you to all the schools, teachers, families, communities and groups that made their involvement possible and for giving them this opportunity
- Project Co-ordinator Crista Hazell who did an amazing job running this project for the sixth time
- Sandra Salin, Holly Pennal, Mary Brynning and the staff and students at Newcastle University’s Language Resource Centre, who checked all the submissions
- Steven Fawkes of the Association for Language Learning North East and ALL for supporting the development and implementation of this project over the last 6 years
- Declan Baharini and International Newcastle for hosting the project again this year
- The North East Mayoral Strategic Authority, for funding this project commission as part of the Festival
- The national network of partners promoting Mother Tongue Other Tongue across the UK, led by Manchester Metropolitan University, which originated the Mother Tongue Other Tongue project.
This project was funded by the North East Mayoral Strategic Authority
The project was supported by:
Resources were provided by:
