West Midlands

This event is part of the outreach and widening participation work delivered to local schools by the School of Modern Languages and Cultures through the Routes into Languages network. This event will allow pupils to:

• explore with us the traditions of Kölner Karneval
• get to know some of the places and the food people eat at Karneval
• investigate the role of political satire in the festivities

The event will challenge pupils in Year 8 to

• use their German language skills
• use their teamwork and presentation skills
• use their creativity and crafts skills to come up with a costume (before the event so they can wear it on the day) and a decorated truck for our Karneval parade

Our SMLC staff team will be supported by our wonderful team of SMLC student ambassadors.

As part of our outreach work at the University of Warwick we are delighted to invite Year 12 students in the West Midlands studying a Modern Foreign Language to a Higher Education Languages Taster Day. The aim of this day is for students to gain an insight into what it is like to study languages at university by attending specially developed sessions run by lecturers in the School of Modern Languages and Cultures. It will be a fantastic enrichment opportunity for students and an ideal experience to reflect on as part of UCAS Personal Statements. Please find further details here: Higher Education Languages Taster Day for Y12 students (warwick.ac.uk). 

The aim of the Mother Tongue Other Tongue competition is to celebrate languages, culture and language-learning, giving secondary school students the opportunity to practise and improve their foreign language skills (any language they are learning in school) and/or appreciate and celebrate their heritage, using poetry. The regional competition is being led by Routes into Languages West Midlands at The University of Warwick.

Deadline for entries is 26 May 2023. Please find further information here: Mother Tongue Other Tongue Poetry Competition (warwick.ac.uk)

NB This activity is open to all schools in the UK

The Summer Holiday Language Immersion Challenge is aimed at students in years 7 to 13 and is designed to keep them practising their target language during the long summer break.

Students each receive a booklet containing 14 activities for them to complete, ranging from sending an email, watching a film or reading a teenagers blog in the target language to name just a few.

Participants will be awarded Gold, Silver or Bronze certificates after the summer holidays, depending on how many of the challenges they have completed.

There are an optional 5 advanced challenges for those students in years 10 to 13, and if they complete all of these as well as the first 14 challenges, they are awarded a Platinum certificate.

The challenge booklet and certificates are attached and available for teachers to download.

The Summer Holiday Language Immersion Challenge is aimed at students in years 7 to 13 and is designed to keep them practising their target language during the long summer break.

Students each receive a booklet containing 14 activities for them to complete, ranging from sending an email, watching a film or reading a teenagers blog in the target language to name just a few.

Participants will be awarded Gold, Silver or Bronze certificates after the summer holidays, depending on how many of the challenges they have completed.

There are an optional 5 advanced challenges for those students in years 10 to 13, and if they complete all of these as well as the first 14 challenges, they are awarded a Platinum certificate.

The challenge booklet is available to download below.

Editable versions of each of the certificates are also attached below for teachers to produce and print out for their students.