News
The GCHQ National Language Competition 2024
We are pleased to confirm the date of the 2024 GCHQ National Language Competition, which will run from Monday 18th November - Friday 22nd November.
The National Language Competition (NLC) is a virtual competition where teams from schools around the UK compete against each other to solve language-based puzzles and score points. The overall winners are then invited to GCHQ’s headquarters in Cheltenham to receive their trophy!
With the NLC, GCHQ aims to inspire language learning by encouraging students to discover their aptitude for learning languages. Some sample challenges are provided below- why not encourage your pupils to have a go?
Teachers can register their interest in the NLC 2024 by contacting [email protected]
Please contact us on [email protected] if you have any other issues or queries.
Upcoming events hosted by the British Council
Check out upcoming events hosted by the British Council.
Celebrate Speaking
Speaking another language is an incredible skill – and it’s great fun too! Give your students the chance to practise and celebrate their favourite language, whether it’s one they're learning in class or one they speak in their community. Join our festival of language in February.
Employ a language assistant
Thinking of bringing a modern language assistant into your classroom in 2024-25? Find out how it could benefit your students and what’s involved. Applications open 29 February.
Education Exchange: Climate
Join our webinar on 1 February to learn how to set up climate change and sustainability education in schools.
Year of the Dragon: Free resources
Celebrate the Year of the Dragon in your classroom with our free teaching resource and explore Chinese language and culture.
International Education Week - Languages
This is International Education Week. Please check out all the resources available from the British Council.
The Languages Gateway
A very useful source for resources and information for languages has recently been launched - The Languages Gateway.
We would encourage all language teachers to explore what is available on the site. Searches can be refined to a particular language and to a particular UK region.
Spanish resources available from the Consejería
The following resources are now available from the Consejería.
Get the most up-to-date information with regards to the promotion of Spanish language and culture from the Consejería on their website:
They are also on Twitter! @consejeriauk
Forthcoming training activities from September to December
CPD Opportunities for teachers of Spanish: The Consejería continue to offer excellent professional development opportunities for teachers of Spanish in different formats: online, face-to-face, immersion opportunities in Spain.
Immersion opportunities in Spain: After the opportunities offered to British teachers to follow a course in a Spanish city (Valladolid, Segovia, Burgos, Palencia, León) during the school holidays, in this academic year 2022/2023 there will be new grants offered by the Junta de Castilla y León in different cities in Spain!
Resources
Tecla: Revista TECLA will be released in September. This new issue of the magazine will include some of the contributions that were presented at the Spanish Workshops held in London on the 25th June 2022: materials and ideas for the Spanish classroom, projects, etc.
Acti/España: The upcoming edition (issue number 26) of the journal of Spanish speaking activities Acti/España will be available at the end of September. It is a compilation of excellent resources created by language assistants which are ready to be used in the classroom for Primary and other levels (A, B1 and B2 levels, according to the CEFRL).
Veo en español: A project that has been set up in agreement between the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training, the Film Academy and the Institute of Cinematography and Audiovisual Arts (ICAA) which provides teachers access to the Platino Educa platform, a platform full of audiovisual materials for Spanish classes:
- Films, short films, animations in Spanish;
- Teaching materials and guides for use in the classroom, in bilingual versions;
- Ability to search by age group, type of film, theme; and
- Subtitled versions of many films available.
eLeo: The digital library of the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training with more than 3,000 books available for the Spanish classroom: graded readers, comics, novels, research publications, etc.
Registration for both Veo en español and eLeo is free for teachers of Spanish in the UK.
Brochures and posters to promote Spanish: Information for the promotion of Spanish. With updated data according to different reports published recently on the situation of Spanish, the fold-out, aimed at schools, parents and students, summarises the reasons for choosing Spanish as a foreign language from an educational and social point of view.
Other
Best Spanish Student Award: Do you have any outstanding A-level (or equivalent) students? Nominate them toward this award to give them the chance to win a three-day trip to Castilla y León in Spain. This generally opens in April.
School Links: Are you looking to establish a partnership with a school in Spain? Do you wish to organise a student exchange or project? Join our database so that we can put you in touch with a Spanish school!
NICILT Teacher Professional Learning Webinars with Joe Dale
CCEA Education Team (Languages) would like to inform languages teachers of three twilight professional learning webinars offered by NICILT in collaboration with Joe Dale:
Quizzing tools and retrieval practice in MFL
Monday 11th January, 8pm – 9pm:
Hybrid teaching for Roomies and Zoomies
Monday 18th January, 8pm – 9pm:
Harnessing the power of Bitmojis and Jamboard to engage learners in and out of the MFL classroom
Monday 25th January, 8pm – 9pm
For more information and to register, please follow the link below: