North West

On Thursday 26th February the North West Consortium Project held a Community Languages Teachers’ Symposium. Sixteen people attended the symposium – including teachers from mainstream and supplementary schools, Language Tutors and Teacher Trainers and a representative from Manchester City Council. After an update on the work the North West Consortium team has been doing, there were discussions about matters affecting the teaching and learning of community languages. The attendees looked at ways to improve the links between mainstream and supplementary schools and ideas were generated for how the North West Consortium can continue to support community languages in both these sectors.

If you would be interested in attending similar events in the future please email routes@mmu.ac.uk

To view a copy of the presentation delivered at the Teachers' Symposium click here (Microsoft Powerpoint).

To view minutes from the evening please click here.

A training course to bring to life the teaching of Urdu through highly interactive methodology for the language and culture.

Whatever your level –beginner, advanced or native speaker – anyone with an interest in teaching beginners Urdu will benefit greatly from this course.   

Signing up to this free course will give you access to a wealth of Urdu teaching materials, including games, websites and lesson plans, everything you need to bring Urdu alive in your lessons.

Course dates and times:

• April 28th        9.00 to 4.00      
• April 29th         4.00 to 6.15      
• May 6th          4.00 to 6.15      
• May 13th        4.00 to 6.15      
• May 20th        4.00 to 6.15      
• June 10th       4.00 to 6.15      
• June 17th       4.00 to 6.15      
• June 24th       4.00 to 6.15      
• July 1st           4.00 to 6.15      
• July 8th          9.00 to 4.00  

To register, go to http://www.traffordlearning.org/cpd/CPDCourseForm.asp and fill out the online enrolment form or send an e-mail to routes@mmu.ac.uk.

Download a flyer of the course here.

The many parts of the Routes into Languages North West Consortiumwere brought together in October. Held in the lavish setting of Manchester University's Ashburne Hall, the Away Day was a chance for those involved with the project, as well as representatives from local mainstream and supplementary schools and partner projects, to discuss the next stage of the project and the achievements so far.

Everyone attended three workshops, each chaired by members of the Steering Group and each addressing a different aspect of the project. Ideas and thoughts were collected and then presented to the whole group in a feedback session at the end of the day.

The day was a great success and allowed the different divisions of the North West Consortium to meet and mingle with each other, lending a greater sense of community to the venture. The many ideas suggested should help the North West Consortium expand its aims and keep us busy for the months to come.

As part of their project, Routes into Languages North West launched a series of Teacher Training courses in the summer term. These popular courses were specially designed for teachers of Arabic, Mandarin Chinese and Urdu and included:

• two training days in teaching methodology at the Institute of Education at manchester Metropolitan University
• a visit to partner schools to observe MFL teaching in action
• an observation visit by our teacher trainers to course participants in their own schools

The preliminary courses are still ongoing, but feedback so far has proved very positive and we will certainly be offering further coures in 08/09. They will be posted on the Upcoming Events list as soon as they are announced.

Highlighing the accomplishments of last year and looking forward to forthcoming events, the new Routes into Languages North West Newsletter has arrived. A hard copy has been sent to all mainstream and supplementary schools in the region, and you can see a virtual copy here.

Please contact routes@mmu.ac.uk if you require a hard copy.

The North West Consortium was successfully launched on Thursday 8th May 2008.

The launch was opened by Professor John Brooks, Vice-Chancellor of Manchester Metropolitan University, and was followed by a keynote speech by Cllr M Afzal Khan, former Lord Mayor of Manchester and Councillor for Cheetham. Dr Sharon Handley, project director for the North West consortium, gave a brief overview of the project and talked about progress so far.

This was followed by some wonderful performances from two local supplementary schools. A group of young children from the Huaxia Chinese School delighted the audience with a play based on a story from Monkey King's Journey to the West: Fight the White-Bone Demon, followed by a traditional Chinese fan dance, elegantly performed by older pupils from this school. The audience were then treated to a sumptuous fashion show by pupils from the Hijra Arabic School, who showed off exotic national costumes from Arabic-speaking countries.

For a report on the launch please go here.