Jan Lewandowski

On the 14^th of June, the ALL London meeting will be taking place at the Gœthe Institute. You can download a flyer here. I’ll be doing a half-hour session. The title is a bit of a secret just yet but suffice it to say that I shall be incorporating lost of hands on activities: doing, making and generally joining in. ALL is beginning to take a more active role in Primary languages and the Association has just brought out a Primary Box for Key Stage 1. I’m often asked about suitable resources for Key Stage 1 so I’m looking forward to having a look. I’m going to ask Helen Myers, this year’s President of ALL, if we can have an example of the Primary Box on display at the event.

Do come along if you live and work in the London area or elswhere in the country. There will be stimulating presentations from the British Film Institute and Glynnis Rumley; with ideas adaptable for all languages and all Key Stages.

I’ve spent a few days in Brussels where I added to my collection of children’s story books at Bibliopolis which is one of my regular haunts in Brussels and where you can find the most amazing bargains sourced I imagine from bankrupt stock, publishers’ remainders, etc.

En route for home I spent a very interesting day at Ashcombe School with Helen Myers and Jenny Clark. I already knew that Ashcombe provided a high level of support for primary languages but, being curious, I wanted to see for myself exactly what they did so I went along to one of their information days. Helen Myers , very well known in MFL circles and President Elect of ALL and Jenny Clark (primary outreach teacher) were really welcoming and gave us a very thorough overview of what they do there. I was very impressed; this a model of good practice that should be shared by every SLC. We were even taken to visit some of the feeder primaries so that we could see the French teaching in action, which I thought was really generous of the schools and teachers involved.