Blog Archives

High Potential and Gifted Education (HPGE) Policy

27/2/2020

Have you read the Department’s new HPGE policy and considered how it might relate to your work in Languages?

This is a learning and teaching policy for all schools P-12 based around the principles of equity and excellence which will be implemented in schools from the start of 2021. You will notice 4 domains of potential are described – creative, intellectual, physical and social-emotional. The inclusiveness of the new policy has been applauded by school leaders and teachers from across the state.

Advice, support and resources can be found on the dedicated HPGE web-section. Face-to-face and online professional learning options are available for school leaders and teachers. Join the High Potential and Gifted Education Yammer page through the DoE portal for all the updates and when face-to-face PL will be available near you!

Virtual Languages Mentoring Network (VLMN) 2019-2020

26/2/2020

The Languages and Culture team supports beginning language teachers 7-12 through the VLMN. A beginning teacher is one in their first 2 years of teaching in metro areas or in their first 5 years in rural and remote NSW.

The VLMN provides targeted support over an 18 month period, with beginning teachers (mentees) matched to experienced teacher mentors on a 2:1 ratio.

Due to the addition of new mentees to the program in 2020, expressions of interest are invited from experienced language teachers of Japanese and Chinese 7-12 who would like to join the second cohort of the VLMN for 2019-2020 to mentor beginning teachers of languages. In selecting mentors, we will consider selection criteria responses and teaching contexts, to ensure members are drawn from a wide range of schools.

Mentors will provide support from Term 1 2020 until the end of Term 4 2020. Relevant professional learning will be provided for all successful applicants including participation in the VLMN conference on Monday 6 and Tuesday 7 April. Applicants must be able to attend on these dates.

The Languages and Culture team will provide release and related expenses to participants to facilitate mentoring support and to attend targeted professional learning.

Please complete the attached EOI form and submit by 5pm on Friday 6 March 2020 to Shanelle Ingram.

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Cherrybrook Technology High School is updating its casuals list

26/2/2020

Cherrybrook Technology High School is updating its list of casual teachers and is seeking teachers who are available for casual work. Interested teachers are invited to send a copy of their CV, relevant certificates, Department of Education employee details and WWCC number to Masami Arkins, Head Teacher, Languages (International and Multicultural Programs). Please indicate in your email the language you are qualified to teach – Japanese, Chinese or French – year level that you are able to teach, days available, contact email, phone number and casual teacher number.

Network leaders wanted – some networks may be impacted

21/2/2020

The Languages and Culture team is still looking for expressions of interest from language teachers in NSW public secondary schools to lead a language teachers' network for 2020 in the areas of:
- Macarthur
- Sydney South
- Far North Coast
- Tamworth.

If we cannot identify new leaders for these 4 areas, network members will need to attend their next closest geographic network:
- Macarthur teachers to attend the Sydney South West network
- Sydney South teachers to attend the Sydney South West or the Sydney CBD/East network
- Far North Coast teachers to attend the Virtual network
- Tamworth to attend the Armidale or the Virtual network.

If you are interested in the opportunity to become a network leader, please complete the attached EOI form and email it to Evia Kyriacou by 29 February 2020. These positions are fully supported with relief, funding and tailored support to meet the specific of the network leader and their area.

If you would like more information, please email or call 7814 2820.

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Register now for MLTANSW professional learning for provisional and beginning language teachers

20/2/2020

The MLTANSW is committed to supporting all language teachers across NSW and, in Term 1, focus is on provisional teachers and teachers in their first 3 years of teaching a language. This workshop will not only provide valuable professional learning, it will also help new teachers build their support networks with colleagues from the languages education community.

The following topics will be covered in workshops on the day:

Unpacking the NESA K-10 Language syllabuses – Melissa Gould-Drakeley (Inspector Languages at NESA)
Advocacy in the Language teaching space – Liberty Campbell (Project Officer for Languages in the Broken Bay Diocese and the author of the Jblog textbook series)
Achieving intercultural understanding through the language of pictures – Shirley Hoogewerf (Teacher of Chinese and French)

DATE: 4 April 2020
TIME: 8:30am (for a 9.00am start) – 3.00pm
VENUE: Rydges Central – 28 Albion St, Surry Hills
COST: $150 (members)/$200 (non-members)

Register at https://www.mltansw.asn.au/

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Term 1 2020 statewide Adobe Connect – recording now available

20/2/2020

Yesterday we delivered our first statewide Adobe Connect session for 2020, with our games bonanza. We explored a variety of activities which bring fun to the classroom whilst developing language skills, and we even had a little interaction ourselves!

We think the live feedback from participants says it all…
Michelle: This has been an amazing session
Paola; Thank you for those great game ideas
Ilian: Thanks, that was interesting, fun and useful. Terima kasih banyak, Bu! :)
Phuong: Thanks so much. It will be very useful
Jenny: Fantastic session. Thanks Coreena. Some brilliant ideas I would like to adapt into my classes.
Brett: I will definitely be re-watching this with the pause button later.

Our plan is to develop a games and activity sharing space for all teachers to access. If you have any game ideas, videos, templates that your students enjoy and you are willing to share, please send them to Coreena Allen.

We hope you continue to enjoy our short professional learning sessions delivered via Adobe Connect – our Term 4 session on assessment has since had more than 600 views!

Thank you to the 55 language teachers who joined us live yesterday. If you were unable to attend, you can view the session recording. Files and games templates can be downloaded from the attachments below.

Next session: Feedback!

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Expressions of interest – LANG 2020 – feedback to students

19/2/2020

In December last year, we advised you that the Languages Advisory Network Group (LANG) will be re-imagined in 2020, and here's your first opportunity to be involved!

Expressions of interest are invited from teachers/head teachers of languages from NSW public schools who would like to work with the Languages and Culture team to co-design our Term 2 statewide Adobe Connect session on quality feedback to students. To be eligible, you must be teaching languages in the 7-12 range.

We are looking for 2 teachers who are passionate about and have expertise in the area of feedback.

Successful applicants will be provided with up to 4 days' relief in Term 1. The initial planning day will be held on 19 March at Parramatta or Gateshead office (depending on the location of successful applicants). Subsequent dates and venues will be negotiated.

The Languages and Culture team will provide relief costs for participants. Travel and accommodation will also be met for rural and remote teachers, if required.

To apply, complete the attached EOI.

All applications require the endorsement of the applicant’s current principal. Please complete all areas on the expression of interest form and email to shanelle.ingram@det.nsw.edu.au by Friday 28 February 2020.

For further information, contact Shanelle Ingram, R/Languages Officer on 0421510838 or via email at shanelle.ingram@det.nsw.edu.au

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Website issues

15/2/2020

Please be aware that the department's website (education.nsw.gov.au) has recently been migrated to a new platform. Whilst most content made the transition smoothly, many of the curriculum pages (including education.nsw.gov.au/languages) have been impacted, with question marks in place of dashes, broken links and pages not found. Also, we are currently unable to upload new content. Thank you for you patience while we work with technical support to identify and fix all issues.

Seeking participants in workshop trial for "Assessment and reporting in 7-10 – new language syllabuses”

14/2/2020

The Languages and Culture team is currently finalising our new workshop, “Assessment and reporting in 7-10 – new language syllabuses”, which will be rolled out statewide in Terms 1 and 2.

As with all our professional learning events, we will be running a trial event with teachers, to ensure the content and delivery are of the highest quality.

We’re looking for 8-10 teachers to participate in the trial event, from a range of school contexts.

The workshops, including the trial event, are for teachers 7-10 from NSW public schools only.

Event date: Wednesday 4 March 2020
Venue: Level 1, 105 Philip Street Parramatta
Times: 8:30am-5pm (note that participants must commit to this timeframe, to allow time for feedback to the presenters)

Relief costs will be met for all participants. Travel and accommodation costs will also be met for rural and remote teachers.

If interested, please email marcela.ayas@det.nsw.edu.au by 5pm on Friday 21 February 2020.

The workshop will be NESA-registered for 5 hours.

Stage 6 school-based assessment in [Language] and Literature – professional learning

13/2/2020

The Languages and Culture team, in collaboration with Shirley Cai from Killarney Heights High School, is offering a Stage 6 school-based assessment in [Language] and Literature workshop. This is TIPL for 2 hours.

This course builds teachers’ capacity to understand and apply mandatory Stage 6 school-based assessment in [Language] and Literature courses. It unpacks NESA’s current school-based assessment requirements including examples of best practices. Provision of sample tasks based on syllabus outcomes, combined with collaborative discussions, support teachers in developing their own non-HSC style assessment tasks.

This course will enable participants to:
- understand the requirements of school-based assessment in Stage 6 [Language] and Literature courses
- implement a range of assessment strategies in Stage 6 [Language] and Literature courses
- design an effective assessment task for Stage 6 [Language] and Literature courses.

The workshop will be held at Ashfield Boys High School on 5 March from 1:00-3:00pm. Afternoon tea will be provided. To enrol, browse for course code NR27707.

For further information, please email Marcela Ayas or call on 7814 3448. Alternatively, you may also contact Shirley Cai on 9451 7005.