Newcastle University is to help language teachers access support and advice to meet the needs of the new national curriculum, thanks to the ALL Connect project.

The Association for Language Learning (ALL) has received £300,000 from the Department for Education to provide continuing professional development on the new curriculum for teachers in Key Stage 2 and Key Stage 3.

René Koglbauer, (pictured) current ALL President and Deputy Head of the School of Education, Communication and Language Sciences (ECLS) at Newcastle University, says: "This is fantastic news both for the Association for Language Learning as well as for Newcastle University and the many partner schools we have been working with.

“The ALL Connect project will strengthen the already great links between many regional schools and the University further, but will give us also the opportunity to form new alliances.”

The North Leadership Centre, part of ECLS, will co-ordinate the North East region, which will include establishing ten ALL Connect Local Centres.?With the arrival of the new national curriculum in England from this month, the teaching of languages is now compulsory for all seven to 14 year olds in England.

This presents a challenge for many primary schools where teachers will be teaching languages for the first time, and for those in secondary schools who will need to assess the progress students have made, and build on these foundations. 

The training model is teacher-led and will be provided at a local level by lead teachers to colleagues from the primary and secondary sectors. This will offer participants the opportunity to train and network with peers and to share best practice together.

Operating initially in the North East, East and the North Midlands, the project will offer free face-to-face and online training on major themes such as speaking, writing, grammar, transition and progression to those working in mainstream education.

The Association for Language Learning (ALL) is the UK’s major professional association for teachers of foreign languages, with around 5,000 members in all educational sectors.

published on: 19 September 2014