Modern Languages Blog

Celebrate the Success of Scotland’s Schools.

The Awards highlight best practice in Scottish classrooms, celebrate schools and acknowledge the dedicated individuals who devote their lives to helping young people fulfil their potential.  Entry to the Awards is open to all publicly funded schools, including secondary, primary, nursery and special schools. Further details of the Awards and the categories can be found on the Scottish Education Awards website.

Nominations are open until 5pm on Friday 27 February 2009.

http://www.scottisheducationawards.org.uk

Just a reminder that The Lefevre Trust has funding available for all groups of young people (11-19 year olds) in the whole of the UK and there’s lots of funding for the taking! Extra-curricular groups, sports teams, youth groups as well as schools can apply for reciprocal grants to visit France or the départements d’outre mer.

Please promote it as widely as possible; it’s a great opportunity for schools to support language learning for school groups. The next deadline is mid February but they are keen to increase applications and could extend it by a week or so if you interested and need more time. The next deadline will then be in May.

Please  contact Ruth Cocks if you have any more questions.
http://www.britishcouncil.org/schoolpartnerships-france-lefevre-trust.htm

The Scottish Centre for Information on Language Teaching and Research (Scottish CILT) has recently created a wiki especially for Modern languages in Scotland.

The aim is to create a unique knowledge base for teachers in Scotland. You can easily add your own ideas to topics that already exist or share your own ideas on a brand new topic. Please visit the Scottish Cilt wiki for more information.

http://scottishcilt.wetpaint.com/ 

Are you interested in learning new skills relevant to the developing media industry?

Do you have you an interest in the Gaelic language?

Comhairle nan Eilean Siar’s Cultural Co-ordinator Service has a special interest in Gaelic drama and media. With funding from Enterprise in Education, it will offer an ‘Acting for Camera’ short residential course to secondary school pupils with an active interest in Gaelic drama.

This exciting learning opportunity will use contemporary professionals and modern facilities and will be made available to secondary pupils living in the Western Isles. The course will take place in Stornoway at the beginning of the Easter Holidays 2009 (end of March 2009).

More details from Erica Morrison, Cultural Co-ordinator, Education Development Centre, Kenneth Street, Stornoway, HS1. You can contact Erica through her email: e.morrison@cne-siar.gov.uk or by phone – 01851 708655.

The French Institute of Scotland is holding its annual inter-school drama competition in French. The aim of the event is to promote the learning of French language through a recreational way. Helped by their teachers and French assistants, the pupils perform a short play in French which may be taken from an original play, adapted from another type of text (novel, short story, poem, tale), or created for the occasion.

For more information download the attached application form: Rencontres théâtrales 2009

Closing date for entries is Monday 16 February 2009.

Alliance Française  is offering workshops with a variety of themes such as

• Culture in the news
• Games with words
• Multimedia photo story creation 

Workshops are held over two weeks from 27 January – 5 February 2009 and
all workshops consist of two 3 hour sessions, split over two weeks. 

 Courses fees: £30

For further details please visit Alliance Française website or phone 0141 331 4080

Dublin - 23-26  February 2009

LTS is organising a Group Study Visit to Dublin in February 2009 on the theme of the ‘Transition Year Programme’ in the Republic of Ireland.

More details of the Dublin visit and the application form are available from the International Education website.

Oslo - 29 March-2 April 2009

A Group Study Visit to Oslo to investigate the Norwegian ‘Cultural Rucksack’ scheme and provision of expressive arts learning opportunities.

More details of the Oslo visit and the application form are available from the International Education website.

Le Grand Défi is an annual competition open to Year 7 students in England and Wales, S1 students in Scotland and Year 8 students in Northern Ireland.

Its purpose is to help stimulate interest in the learning of French and to help identify and reward achievement on the part of students.

Students are entered for the competition by their French teacher, and have to sit a 30-minute test. Sponsored by Linguascope, the competition offers a range of fabulous prizes. 

Find out more on the Le Grand Defi competition website.

http://www.granddefi.com/index.htm

Registration is open for the following workshop, organised by the Subject Centre for Languages, Linguistics and Area Studies and the Centre for Russian, Central and East European Studies (University of Glasgow):

Workshop: Language diversity in Scottish universities: practical strategies to support teaching and learning

Date: 20 February 2009 Location: University of Glasgow

This workshop will consider the importance of language diversity in Scottish universities and will also focus on practical issues involved in setting up and sustaining modules and programmes in lesser taught languages. It will cover themes such as getting started with a new module in a lesser taught language, teaching ab initio and introducing students to content modules. Participants will also have the opportunity to experience a taster session in a lesser taught language.

More information, programme and registration details

http://www.llas.ac.uk/events/3104

Public Lecture: Thursday 29 Jan 09 6pm-8pm

Professor Puett is an internationally renowned speaker famous for his brilliant style of free and lively presentation. A leading authority on early Chinese history of ideas he has published extensively on topics such as cosmology, sacrifice, self-divinization, debates concerning innovation and artifice, ritual, emotions, sagehood and historiography in Early China.

This talk takes place in the Raeburn Room, Old College, University of Edinburgh from 6pm to 8pm. It is a free talk but places should be booked in advance. To book please email info@confuciusinstitute.ac.uk or call 0131 662 2180.

For more details on this and upcoming lectures please visit the Confucius Institute events section.