Celebrate the European Day of Languages on Thursday 26 September by taking part in our poster competition!
To mark the European Day of Languages, we invite schools from the West Midlands region to participate in our poster competition. With the number of UK languages learners reducing, whilst international commerce and travel increase, our aim is to spread the message of the importance of learning languages, promoting intercultural awareness and encourage uptake, particularly at GCSE and beyond. However, this year we are very excited to invite students in primary schools in our region to take part in the competition too!
Speaking another language can lead to new friendships, more fun when on holiday and opportunities to study or work abroad in the future. So, to get our Reception to Year 10 pupils thinking about these things, we would like the students to design a poster about another European country they would like to visit or have visited before. Pupils should design their own poster, using, if they wish, a variety of materials and languages! (primary school students may recieve some help from their teachers of course!)
The poster should tell us which country it is and some facts about it e.g. language spoken, food, music, famous landmarks etc. – the more the better!
Entries can be submitted in any foreign langauge or langauges and may include some English if desired (for example, pupils may like to provide a translation of the facts they provide). Each poster should be no larger than a sheet of A4 paper and must be completed by hand but any form of materials can be used – felt tips, paint, fabric etc. Judges will be looking for originality of illustration as well as accuracy of language and content.
The competition is open to pupils in Reception to Year 10 with one winner for each key stage. Each entry MUST be clearly marked on the back with the pupil’s name, age, year group, teacher and school, as well as any necessary information about the language(s) chosen (i.e. if it is a less widely learned language) to facilitate judging. When sending school entries, teachers should provide a covering note with their contact details for ease of notifying winners. N.B. All entries will be disposed of in our confidential waste once the judging has been completed.
Please note that entries cannot be returned, we advise making a scanned copy for pupils who wish to retain their work. In the event of insufficient entries of good quality, no prize will be awarded; the judges’ decision is final.
Prizes will be awarded for Reception, KS1, KS2, KS3 and KS4. The prizes will be a £10 Lover to Shop voucher for each of the winners plus a winner’s certificate. The winning entries will be displayed around the School of Languages and Social Sciences at Aston University and will feature on our website. They may also be used in publicity materials in future. Prizes will be posted out to the winners schools. Please note that only the key stage and name of the school of the winning entries will be used in any publicity.
We hope that you will encourage your pupils to take part in this competition as part of your in-school European Day of Languages celebrations. The deadline for submission of entries will be Friday 11 October 2019. Please note any entries submitted after this date will not be included and we are unable to extend the closing date for individual schools.
Please send your entries to: European Day of Languages Competition, Routes into Languages West Midlands, Room MB777, School of Languages and Social Sciences, Aston University, Aston Triangle, Birmingham B4 7ET. If you have any queries please email us at routes@aston.ac.uk or call 0121 204 4720.
We are very grateful for the generous funding we have received from Santander Universities which has enabled us to offer the prizes for this competition.
Need some inspiration?
- Encourage pupils to use home languages – they could even teach a few words or phrases to other pupils.
- Take the opportunity to so some cross curricular work with your art department
- Visit http://www.oddizzi.com/teachers/explore-the-world/places/europe/
- Have a look at the European Day of Languages website https://edl.ecml.at/
