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Darlington Regional Support Group |
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Darlington Regional Support Group will hold regular sessions throughout the year, including a number of additional half day sessions focusing on specific aspects of primary languages. The sessions are free and include refreshments and are suitable for anyone involved or interested in primary languages from across the region. North
East Regional Consultative Group is a networking and discussion group
hosted by North Tyneside, County
Durham, Redcar and Cleveland and Darlington
Regional Support Groups. This was the first session for the new Darlington RSG. There was a very good attendance with most schools in Darlington represented at the session. Teachers were enthusiastic and took part in a number of activities which allowed them to network with other teachers from different schools. The session was lead by Louise Abbott the RSG coordinator and involved a number of speakers talking about there success in different international projects. John Thorley gave a very detailed presentation on how to get involved in a TIPD and Bev Ewbank shared her experience of a TIPD in Hungary with the group. The head of a local primary school talked about her experiences as part of a Comenius project and how to apply and find partners to participate and Louise Abbott discussed the options of international links outside of Europe involving primary pupil exchanges to Russia and China. All participants went away with ideas to start international links and suggested a future half day session would be beneficial to look at applications in more details. Details of this session to follow. Session
2: Tuesday 30 January 2007 This session was very well attended again by both teachers and teaching assistants. The focus of the session was on active learning through languages and involved all participants actively trying out new games and songs to use in the classroom. A very lively session, which provided lots of enthusiasm. Opportunities to sample new resources were discussed and Darren Lamb a representative from Rigolo give a fantastic presentation on what they offer to support language teaching. CILT’s residential language courses were discussed and many participants expressed an interest in applying for this year’s course to improve their own language learning skills. Another very successful session which allowed for further networking and sharing of ideas and resources. Session
3: Tuesday 20 March 2007 The overall opinion of participants was that ASSET languages seem an excellent method of assessing and awarding children for their language learning and further information on implementing this into school will be forwarded including the opportunity for a further RSG based on becoming an ASSET Centre. CPD session:
Thursday 29 March 2007 A half day practical workshop for participants to be given the opportunity to register on the Global Gateway website, search for partner schools abroad and complete application forms for funding of interantional opportunities. A number of different opportunities to incorporate an international dimension into their schools will be discussed. Session
4: Tuesday 22 May 2007 *please note
change of date* This session proved very useful for all attendants. Lucy made a fantastic presentation on the new Training Zone website and how it can be used to help teachers own CPD, she created an active session with participants joining in songs and dances which can be adapted for use in any language. Lucy also gave an overview of what is on the NACELL website and give a demonstration of how the vast array of resources available on the website can be used in school. This session was the final session of the year and saw a very good attendance. Two well established headteachers from the Federation of Abbey Schools presented the session on how to lead and manage a learning network for languages. The opportunities to link with other local schools were explored and the methods of which different expertise can be used to create a bank of resources and lessons on a number of topics for a range of age groups were identified. Kris, a key stage one teacher spoke of her involvement in creating the lessons and resources for her activities and how the children from different schools all experienced different learning environments which helped celebrate their achievements in languages.
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Coordinator: Louise
Robinson, Federation of Abbey Schools, Junior Building, Abbey Road, Darlington, County Durham DL3 8NN