Welcome back from your well-deserved summer holidays – we hope you all enjoyed a fun and relaxing break and are feeling refreshed as we start the 2020 school year.

For those teaching Chinese, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean and Spanish, you should now be using the new K-10 syllabus documents with all students K-10.

For those teaching Arabic, Modern Greek, Turkish and Vietnamese, you should be using the new syllabus documents with K-6, Year 7 and Year 9.

Make sure you bookmark and check out our curriculum support website to access our professional learning events and resources. We apologise that not all resources went up last term, as planned. The "back-end" of our website moved to a new platform, which resulted in a freeze to uploads for several weeks. We will ensure Stages 4 and 5 are fully populated by the end of this term.

Primary – staffing update
- Konnie Zagrimanis continues in the role of Languages Adviser, K-6. 
- Stephen Nogher continues in the role of Languages Officer, K-6. 
- Anastasia Casimatis has joined the team as Languages Resource Development Officer.

Secondary – staffing update
- Elisabeth Robertson continues as Coordinator, Languages and Culture.
- Evia Kyriacou is A/Languages Adviser in Term 1, while the position is being recruited.
- Coreena Allen, Marcela Ayas and Maxine Acosta continue as Language Officers, joined by Shanelle Ingram for Term 1 (relieving for Evia).

​We are looking forward to working with you all again in 2020, and have lots of exciting events planned, including "Assessment and reporting in 7-10" workshops, network meetings and conferences for language teachers in the Hunter/Central Coast region and for Japanese teachers.

Dear colleagues,
As we finish the year, I would like to take this opportunity to update you on some exciting changes to the Languages and Culture team.
From 2020, our team will grow to 4 Language Officers (SEO1s) and a Languages Advisor (SEO2). While the SEO2 position is being recruited, Evia Kyriacou will step into the role for Term 1, broadening her leadership skills. Evia will be backfilled by Shanelle Ingram, who will be joining us from Hunter Sports HS and will be based in one of the Newcastle Education Offices.
I’d like to thank Maxine Acosta for being our internally-funded SEO2 for 2019 – Maxine has led some incredibly complex projects with precision and warmth over the year, delivering some amazing resources for teachers 7-12 across a range of languages, including the Stage 6 Extension materials.
Wishing you all a very relaxing, well-earned break, and we look forward to working with you again in 2020.
Kind regards,
Elisabeth

We're delighted to announce 2 new team members, who have been appointed on 3-year contracts with the Learning and Teaching Directorate.

Coreena Allen
Coreena is a Chinese, Indonesian and Japanese teacher whose substantive position is at Merewether HS, and she also works as Assistant Supervisor at Saturday School of Community Languages. Coreena already has strong ties to the Languages and Culture team, leading our Language Teacher Network – Newcastle, and supporting mentees as a mentor with the Virtual Languages Mentoring Network. She has also relieved in the role of Language Officer, participated in consultation and writing teams for new syllabuses and has experience as an HSC marker. Coreena will be based in Newcastle, and will commence in Term 4.

Marcela Ayas
Marcela is a Spanish teacher whose substantive role is Head Teacher, Languages/EALD at Westfields Sports HS and has experience as Supervisor of Marking and Chief Examiner, as well as working for Saturday School of Community Languages. Since May she has been acting in the role of Language Officer, developing support for the Extension courses and leading 7-10 writing teams to develop resources for the website.

We're very excited to have a full team for the first time in a very long time, and look forward to working with all of you to support language programs in NSW public schools. 

Dear colleagues,
Welcome back from the summer holidays – we hope you all enjoyed a restful break and are feeling refreshed as we start the 2019 school year.

For those teaching K-6, Year 7 and Year 9, you will be implementing the new K-10 language syllabuses (Chinese, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean and Spanish) this year so it’s a busy and exciting time for us all!

Make sure you bookmark and check out the curriculum support website to access our professional learning events and resources.

Primary – staffing update
- Konnie Zagrimanis joins us as Languages Adviser, K-6. Konnie joins us from NESA and brings a wealth of experience with her for the next 3 years in the role.
- We’d also like to welcome Stephen Nogher as Acting Languages Officer, K-6. Stephen will be with us for Term 1 2019, and teaches Italian at Waverley PS.
- Thank you to Ashley Nouris and Melinda Wiecek, who job-shared the Languages Officer position in 2018. Ashley and Melinda have both returned to their school-based positions.
- Finally, congratulations to Sana Zreika who has taken up her new role as Principal, Saturday School of Community Languages.

Secondary – staffing update
- The Languages and Culture team has a new Languages Adviser position to support teachers 7-12 in NSW public school, and we’d like to congratulate Maxine Acosta on her appointment to this role. Maxine’s substantive position is as Language Officer.
- We also welcome back Evia Kyriacou from Bulli HS, who is relieving in Michelle Walls’ position for Term 1 2019.

Welcome back to Term 2 - I hope you all had a fantastic break and enjoyed some of that glorious Easter sunshine!
I'd like to welcome Darlene Knowles to the Languages and Culture team, joining us as a Language Officer on a three year contract. Darlene brings with her 16 years of teaching experience in languages and has most recently been at Southern Cross School K-12 and Kingscliff HS, both on the north coast of NSW.
It will be great to have the rural and remote perspective so strongly represented in our team.
Welcome, Darlene!