ALL West Lancs Hub 1st meeting- a few words

I am pleased to say that The West Lancs Primary ALL Hub (previous blog post ) had its first meeting last Wednesday in Burscough.The meeting took place in my primary school's staffroom, there were about 11 and half of us, a real variety of language professionals - the Head of MFL from Burscough Priory College,2 teaching assistants who  deliver French in KS1/KS2, teachers/ directors of language companies (LCF and Euroclub schools), a language adviser, a student teacher who will be an NQT from September with languages responsibility, a subject coordinator, a German teacher, the Spanish teacher from the primary school next door and we had a French teacher from the Wirral (her website: Barbara Gleave).

Here is what happened:

• I introduced myself, I talked about the ALL and recommended that everybody should join the UK's major subject association for teachers of foreign languages (http://www.all-languages.org.uk/). I explained what a hub was and that it could take a range of formats: ours would be about networking, discussing professional issues, sharing ideas and best practice. I emphasized that I was "only a teacher" not  a trainer or a consultant, and I could share classroom experience or help with Spanish upskilling.  More information here: ALL primary hubs.
• We all said a few words about ourselves and then...
• We got right in the middle of the discussion about the new PoS (for the document click here). We also talked about schemes of work (most use our own), how long our lessons were (from 15 minutes to 60 minutes), language policies and transition to high school.
• We decided that in our next meeting (in October), we will all share a resource we really like. Details to follow.

The meeting was very dynamic, there was not a moment of silence, we were all busy sharing our thoughts. I loved the dialogue, the conversation in an informal environment,  and just sitting at the same table with like minded people who all made an effort to travel to Burscough in their free time.

 

I made goodie bags for the participants, they all had an "I love languages" certificate attached to them:

Inside I put ALL flyers, stickers, resources for EDL : Passports and "Languages take you further" booklets (get them for free, read this blog.) Linguascope sent us a separate bag of flyers and freebies.Thank you The Language Stickers Company, Golden Daffodils, Linguascope, Little Linguist for offering prizes and freebies.

 

Janine, who was promoting German, gave us this book: Franzi und Felix by the Goethe Institut. Read more about this resource! 

Thank you Vicky Cooke, Sue Cave and Eleanor Cobbe for your helpful emails.

And thank you, Gruffalo, for posting the hub flyers one by one in the post box! I may not have the best organising skills and expertise to run a hub, but I have you to support me:-)