Blog Archives

Have you joined our statewide staffroom in Microsoft Teams?

24/2/2021

We now have 436 teachers in our statewide staffroom, and it is slowly growing every day.

The languages statewide staffroom supports language teachers 7-12 in NSW public schools. You can also access direct support from the Languages and Culture team and search over 400 shared resources for Stages 4-6.

Complete our short entry survey to join. Log in using your department email.

Website updates

24/2/2021

We have rebuilt the Stages 4 and 5 section of our website, to make things easier to find. You'll notice our menu now has the following categories:

Under language-specific support, you'll find our existing support across 10 languages. Under learning across the curriculum, you'll find support for cross-curriculum priorities and general capabilities, including literacy and numeracy.

Professional learning now sits within the Stage/s it is relates to – Stages 4 and 5, or Stage 6

We have also redesigned our languages landing page, so that our head teacher support document and our statewide staffrooms are easier to access.

We hope you like the changes we have made!

Please be aware that these changes mean that all previously published links to our website content my no longer work. We recommend you re-bookmark or re-favourite the page in your browser, so you can easily find things again.

We are still fixing some broken links, so please be patient if you notice any issues.

New resources from Australian Children's Television Foundation

24/2/2021

Australian Children's Television Foundation has released a TV series in various languages for use in the language classroom.

They include:
Lockie Leonard – based on the award winning novels by author Tim Winton is available in French, German and Portuguese
Mortified – includes an online teaching resource and is available in French, German and Italian.

These resources are rated PG and are available as digital downloads in the ACTF website.

CCAFL framework for consultation

19/2/2021

NSW is due to consult on CCAFL framework for consultation. Language teachers are invited to participate in the consultation and/or provide feedback via an online survey.

There are 2 online consultation meetings you can attend:
10 March 2021 4-5:30 pm
25 March 2021 4-5:30 pm

Registration and access to the survey for the CCAFL framework for consultation is open from 1 March to 11 April. For more information, please visit the NESA consultations page.

International Conference on Community/Heritage Language Education

19/2/2021

The International Conference on Community/Heritage Language Education organised by SICLE will be held on 11-13 November 2021 at the University of Sydney.

The conference will explore community/heritage language education and its key role in maintaining and developing intergenerational linguistic and cultural understandings. The conference brings together researchers, school leaders, teachers, community members, parents and students. There will be research and classroom strands along with language specific sessions.

Would you be interested in sharing your effective practice and expertise? Please consider presenting a workshop at the conference. The Call for Papers is now open.

For more information and to submit a proposal please click http://icchle.org/

2021 Arabic writing competition – “Arabic and me”

19/2/2021

Sydney Institute for Community Languages Education (SICLE) is running an Arabic writing competition for students of Arabic K-10. The competition, entitled “Arabic and me” closes on 9 April 2021.

To subscribe and for more information, visit the “Arabic and me” webpage.

Does your school connect with a school overseas?

19/2/2021

If you work in a NSW public school and your school has a connection with a school overseas, please read this important SchoolBiz article: https://beta.dec.nsw.gov.au/schoolbiz/issues/year-2021-issue4/schools-with-foreign-arrangements

Examples of a connection with an overseas school include:

- sister school agreements
- any arrangements with foreign government schools
- student study tours
- student or staff exchange arrangements
- arrangements with a foreign university
- sponsorship from a foreign government entity.

Please check with your principal to make sure they're aware of the survey which needs completing.

Statewide meeting – recording and PPT

19/2/2021

On Wednesday, we presented our first statewide staff meeting for 2021. Thank you to those teachers who joined us live for the session on "Making adjustments for students with disability", presented by Marina Laing (Principal Project Officer, Diversity at NESA). For those who weren't able to make it, the recording is now live on our YouTube channel and the slide deck is attached.

adjustments-combined.pdf
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Seeking network leaders for Lower North Coast, Far North Coast, Macarthur, Riverina and Tamworth areas

12/2/2021

The Languages and Culture team invites expressions of interest from language teachers in NSW public secondary schools to lead a languages network for 2021 in the areas of:
- Far North Coast
- Lower North coast
- Macarthur
- Riverina
- Tamworth.

Networks are a vital component of teacher professional learning and support, and strengthen links between our team and schools, and across schools in local areas.

Network leaders are provided with comprehensive support in order to fulfil the requirements of the role, including professional learning, a network leader's handbook and relief to organise events.

Network leadership is an excellent opportunity if you're working towards or thinking about working towards higher levels of accreditation.

If you are interested, please complete and email the attached EOI form, including your principal's endorsement and the selection criteria.

Applications close Friday 26 February 2021.

For further information please contact Evia Kyriacou or call 7814 2820.

eoi_network_leader_2021.docx
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Assessment and reporting in languages 7-10 – professional learning available in Term 1

11/2/2021

This term, the Languages and Culture team is delivering Assessment and reporting in 7-10 – new languages syllabuses workshops online, via Microsoft Teams.

The workshops are for language teachers of Stages 4 and 5 from NSW public schools. This course is Interim Accredited PD until 31 July 2021. Course completions for this course will be transferred to teachers' NESA eTAMS accounts as Accredited PD.

This course leads you through the changes you'll need to make to assessment and reporting in order to align with the new K-10 syllabuses.

There are 5 workshops planned for Term 1:
Tuesday 16 February
Thursday 25 February
Monday 15 March
Tuesday 23 March
Monday 29 March

More events, both through Teams and face-to-face workshops, will be available later in 2021.

The learning intentions of the course are:
- understand the difference between assessment as, for and of learning, and a task-based approach to assessment of learning
- understand the Common Grade Scale and the newly released Course Performance Descriptors for languages and understand their application in determining student achievement of course outcomes
- explore sample marking guidelines and draft marking guidelines differentiated across 5 grades (A-E) for one task
- write quality assessment tasks and design marking criteria that clearly describe student achievement
- understand how to report on student achievement in line with the new syllabus and tailored for the school context.

Enrol via MyPL, by searching for the course or following this link. Places are limited.