* Henrietta Dombey, professor of literacy in primary education at Brighton University, is to speak at a half-day conference on February 6 entitled Talk about Literacy. Organised by the London Association for the Teaching of English, workshops include: using models and frames to support children’s response to fiction; poetry; non-fiction in the literacy hour; drama and literacy. Other LATE events include ‘What English teachers do bestwant most’ on March 13 and the annual residential weekend, July 16-18. Details: John Wilks, LATE general secretary, 5 The Plantation, London SE3 OAB, tel: 0181 318 2381.
* The National Association for the Teaching of English’s annual conference at the University of Northumbria in Newcastle upon Tyne, April 6-9, will aim to represent ‘the breadth of English teaching in ways which reconcile with the national drive to raise literacy standards’. Speakers include Beatrix Campbell, writer and professor of women’s studies, and poet Tony Harrison. Details: NATE, 50 Broadfield Road, Broadfield Business Centre, Sheffield S8 OXJ, tel: 0114 255 5419.
* The British Library is holding sixth-form seminars on Mondays or Fridays from January 25 to March 22. Themes include: appreciation of 20th-century literature, the Romantics, the development of manuscripts. Also on offer are half-day KS2 workshops on ‘the story of writing’ on January 26, February 2,9 and March 2,9,16 and 23. For details tel: 0171 412 7797.
