I wanted to share with you some of my learning from the ALL’s annual conference, my 3rd one only to date…but I wouldn’t miss it for the world now!
Please note you need to be a member to access the presentations. Find out more about joining the association here.
The 1st session I attended was “Assessment without tears” with Jackie Rayment and Yvonne Kennedy. They fitted so much into the 45 minutes! Applying for the Primary Languages Quality Mark can help you stay on track. If you are after some examples of good practice for assessment at primary school and practical tips, please do contact them at Herts For Learning.
Later on the Friday morning I went to listen to Dr Arlene Holmes talking about “Reinventing the Classics: teaching Latin and Ancient Greek at KS2”. She was preaching the converted as far as I am concerned because I love Latin! I learnt it from the age of 11 till the age of 16 and have been rediscovering it since September as I run a Latin club for Y4-6 in one of my schools. All are welcome as I believe Latin can be beneficial to everyone. Arlene was recommending the coursebook “Minimus” (which I use); if you’d like to get started with Latin there is funding and training available through the charity “Classics for all”. If you’d like to find out more, you can contact Arlene directly at arlene.holmes-henderson@classics.ox.ac.uk.
The plenary lecture by Bill Watkin (“A period of calm and stability”) was hilarious… I didn’t take any notes, I was so engrossed! You can view his presentation here but it won’t be the same as being there am afraid!
In the afternoon I attended Julie Prince’s session called “Linking languages and grammar, punctuation and spelling at KS2”. It is always a pleasure to watch Julie in action as her workshops are fun, practical and interactive. You can check out her presentation here.
My last session on Friday was “AIM High in MFL” with Suzi Bewell and Lynn cook. It was fascinating to find out about and experience a little bit of the methodology but left us wanting to know more! You can view what they presented here.
The posters were all interesting (I didn’t know what was going to happen then, I had never experienced a poster session!) so I suggest you check them all out here.
On the Saturday, I got all emotional when the Primary Language Teacher of the Year” was announced because it was a lady I know, respect and like spending time with who received it: Noelia Rivas! If you are a member of the Facebook group “Languages in Primary Schools” you will be familiar with her name. We share a love of books and Trotro!
My 1st talk on that day was by David Shanks, Steven Fawkes and last but not least Laura Simons on “Collaboration and progress as part of a network”: more inspiring people! You can read their presentation here.
My second session was with the French/Scot Richard Tallaron about “Embedding languages across the primary curriculum”. What a laugh we had! He delivered a CLIL science lesson in French. It was so simple and yet so effective! Oh, and I won a prize!! Check out his lesson here.
Next I attended “Phonologique progression” with Nadine Chadier. The 1st time I heard her speak, 2 years ago, I was blown away. I felt the same this time round! To find out more about how Nadine teaching French phonics, click here.
“Making the weather and creating the climate for success” with Dr Rachel Hawkes was as thought-provoking and practical as ever. You can read all about it here.
Before the plenary, it was my turn! I was presenting about the links between languages and literacy; it was a bit theoretical for me but I thoroughly enjoyed delivering the session and got great feedback from it. You can check my presentation and useful links in a separate blog by clicking here.
I think Anne Lise Gordon did a grand job throughout Language World with her talks and presence; Rachel Middleton and her team were fab too, as always!
Of course you can also check out the presentations of other people whom I didn’t get the chance to go and see, like Jane Driver, Jenny Carpenter, Sue cave, Joe Dale, Clare Seccombe and Starr Green only to name a few…
Content from Language World Friday 24 March 2017
Content from Language World Saturday 25 March 2017
We also had a sketch noter in residence!! Lisa Stevens did a fantastic job (you can see here some of her sketch notes) … however I don’t think she had time to breathe!!
Last but not least, there was the exhibition. It is always great to see people again like Stéphane from Linguascope and Charlie from Bili but I also love meeting new people like Emma from John Murray Learning: she introduced me to colouring books made for English people with French or Spanish proverbs in them, books which are beautiful and proving very popular! You can check them out here for the French one and here for the Spanish one!
Language World 2018 is on 23rd and 24th March at Jury’s Inn, Hinckley Island. I have put it in my diary already and hope to see you there!
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