Cumbria Furness Regional Support Group

Coordinator: Rebecca Nelson and Sharon Ralph, John Ruskin School, Lake Road, Coniston, Cumbria. LA21 8EW
Email: rebecca_nelson1982@hotmail.co.uk or frauralph@yahoo.co.uk

Date: 02/10/2008
Feedback from the European Day of Languages and discussion of the new Cumbria scheme of work.
Venue: St Bernard's Catholic High School
Time: 4.15pm
Speaker: Rebecca Nelson & Sharon Ralph

There was poor attendance to this session despite flyers being sent to all primaries in the Furness area. Nevertheless those who did attend listened to a presentation by Rebecca Nelson about assessing in the four skills to National Curriculum levels. This provided a useful insight for the primary teachers although it was agreed that more assessment training was needed. This will therefore form the basis of a future RSG meeting. A video was also shown by Sharon Ralph to describe the European Day of Languages in a local secondary school. The activities could be easily transferred to primary school and an information sheet provided additional useful ideas for the day next year. All attendees were given a CD of resources for the European Day of Languages and a copy of the video to disseminate to their own schools.

All non-attendees who had responded to the initial flyer were also sent a CD and information sheet of what had been discussed at the meeting.

Date: 24/11/2008
Resources for Christmas around the world.
Venue: St Bernard's Catholic High School
Time: 4.15pm
Speaker: Rebecca Nelson & Sharon Ralph

This session was better attended than previous sessions due to a reminder e-mail being sent. There were also apologies from four local primary teachers. Everyone arrived to be served Stollen and were given tickets for the El Gordo lottery later in the session. Rachel Nelson talked about Christmas in Poland which gave some food for thought for cross-curricular links and links with the multi-cultural community. Sharon Ralph gave a presentation on how Christmas is celebrated across Europe which involved a card sorting activity and the Galette des Rois game. Ideas for Christmas activities were also given, eg making and filling shoes, creating a class creche display and acting out the nativity story in the target language. We finished by singing some simple Christmas carols in French, German and Italian. All attendees were given a goody pack with a CD of resources for France, Germany, Spain, Italy and Greece, some Christmas MFL bookmarks and some Christmas MFL badges.

Date: 19/01/2009
Nigel Pearson (CILT) "The Magic of Languages" - magic tricks for the classroom.
Venue: St Bernard's Catholic High School
Speaker: Nigel Pearson

Date: 19/03/2009
Feedback from the Primary Languages Show
Venue: St Bernard's Catholic High School
Time: 4.15pm
Speaker: Rebecca Nelson & Sharon Ralph

Date: 07/05/2009
ICT and animation
Venue: St Bernard's Catholic High School
Speaker: Sharon Ralph

Date: 22/06/2009
Bastille Day and Primary-Secondary Liaison.
Venue: St Bernard's Catholic High School
Time: 4.15pm
Speaker: Sharon Ralph

NACELL Regional Support Groups are funded by the DCSF and co-ordinated by CILT, the National Centre for Languages in support of the National Languages Strategy.