European Day of Languages 2021

Annual competition for schools in the UK organised in North-East England

My time capsule

ALLNE, NfLNE and partners are once again organising the annual European Day of Languages Competition for Schools and in 2021 it is again open to anyone!

2021 is the twentieth anniversary of the European Day of Languages (see below); it is also the year in which the COP conference will be held in Glasgow on environmental issues that affect us all, and of course it is still a year of pandemic.

The organising committee invites language learners in any key stage to create a piece of text in a language they are learning on the theme: (My) Time capsule

What would you put in a time capsule to tell your story to people in 20 years’ time?

Is your story about language, about your life, about the year 2021, about your concerns about the environment, or about something else?

We think that younger language learners might focus on creating a list (of words that are important to them, or of items to place in the time capsule) while older students might explain the reasons for their choices, or create a narrative.

There will be prizes!

The text must include words in a language or languages other than English, and could include imagery relating to the concept. Presentation is important, but judges will look principally at the language in the text, rather than the quality of any images.

Pupils should write their name, age, language used, class, teacher and school on the back of their entry. Please give teacher contact details on the pro forma below (page 4 of this document European-Day-of-Languages-Competition-2021.pdf ).

Please send entries to the following address:

Network for Languages North East, c/o Professor René Koglbauer, Newcastle University, King George VI Building, Newcastle, NE1 7RU.

We reserve the right to use winning entries for display or promotional purposes and potentially for publication (including online), and will inform you accordingly through newsletters or e-bulletins.

The intention is that this might form an activity in your school around the European Day of Languages itself (26th September), so the deadline for submission of entries will be: Wednesday, 6th October 2021.

Vouchers will be offered to the winners; there will be one winner for each key stage, up to and including KS5. Further prizes may also be awarded at the judges’ discretion. In the event of insufficient entries of good quality in any specific key stage no prize will be awarded; the judges’ decision is final.

The judges are made up of the competition organisers and our supporters.

Best wishes

Prof. René Koglbauer                                             Steven Fawkes                  [email protected]                            [email protected]

Network for Languages NE                                    ALL NE