September 26: The European Day of Languages

What’s the big idea?

The European Day of Languages, now in its eighth year, celebrates language and cultural diversity and aims to encourage language learning.

Assembly ideas

Celebrate the diversity of culture in your school by enlisting pupils who speak another language or can say a few words to stand up in assembly and say hello, goodbye and perhaps do simple counting.

Primary pupils enjoy learning songs in a different language and the website of Cilt, the National Centre for Languages, has three examples that it suggests could be taught in an assembly.

Older primary pupils who are learning a language could do a class assembly, perhaps performing a translation of a well-known song such as “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes”.

Or you could be more adventurous. St Thomas Aquinas Catholic Primary School in Milton Keynes had a video conference with its twin school in Spain during a whole-school assembly to celebrate the official launch of it teaching Spanish. The Spanish children taught the English pupils a simple song that the whole school then sang.

Secondary schools, particularly those with a language specialism, could team up with local primaries and send pupils in to work with the younger children.

Help, I don’t have enough time to prepare

www.cilt.org.uklanguagecollegesEDLbournemouth.htm

www.cilt.org.ukcomeniuswestmidlandsks2.htm

www.cilt.org.uktransitiondevonappendix2.doc - 2008-07-07

Where can I go for more information?

www.cilt.org.ukindex.htm.