This year saw ALL’s Primary November with the 4th edition of NPLS (Northern Primary Languages Show) and the first ever SPLS organised by Sue Cave on behalf of ALL, supported in the administration by ALLNE and a host of local teachers as presenters!

Here are perspectives from different people attending. Congratulations to all for a great day, and especially to Sue for her commitment.

Exhibitor – Francesca and Paolo Pini – Language Angels:
From the very first email communication with Sue we could tell that the conference would be impeccably organised and worthwhile to attend. Sue had a very clear vision of what she wanted to achieve and she definitely did so with great success.

Leading up to the conference we were kept in the loop about everything that was happening on the actual day and Sue made sure everything ran smoothly – indeed exactly as planned and expected.  it was a delight to see so many exhibitors in the space and so many attendees happily walking around. There was a real buzz on the day and attendance for a Saturday was nothing short of astounding.

We had lots of interest and visits to our stand, so it was an extremely worthwhile conference for us to attend. We were able to demonstrate our product and talk at length about what we offer as the breaks were long enough. More importantly, we found that the attendees who were mostly primary subject leads (specialist and non-specialists) were excited and enthused about primary languages and were buzzing as they came out from the workshops. They were interested to walk around the exhibition hall and see what was on offer. There is a genuine, renewed energy for teaching languages at primary school level and the attendees were talking about the actual teaching of languages and how to incorporate all the ideas they were picking up in the workshops into their lessons once back in class the following week. There was a real sense of “team” on the day.

There was no standing around at this conference! We sincerely hope it is now a permanent fixture on the calendar.

Presenter – Angela Smith – Stafford Leys Primary School:
A chance encounter with Sue Cave at Language World 2018 led to me being invited to present a workshop at the inaugural Southern Primary Languages Show, which was held recently at the Holt School in Wokingham. Having taught Primary French for almost fifteen years, I had plenty of experience of standing in front of a class (30) – or sometimes a whole school (620) – of children, but had never presented to a room full of adults! However, I know how friendly and supportive linguists tend to be, so I decided to open myself up to a whole new experience and present a workshop sharing ideas for using free and low-cost resources to support language learning.

I travelled down with my friend and colleague, Ellie Chettle-Cully, leaving Leicester well before dawn, and arrived in good time to be met by Sue and the aroma of coffee and croissants. As a first-time presenter, I was slightly nervous, my main worries revolving around the timings and the technology. In the event, my fears were unfounded and everything went smoothly due, no doubt, to Sue’s excellent organisational skills. My workshop was well-received and, afterwards, I was able to relax and enjoy the other sessions and the exhibition.

On reflection, I am so pleased that I decided to accept the invitation; I gained a lot from the experience. Presenting to adults was not as daunting as I thought – in fact, I thoroughly enjoyed it. I was able to attend four other sessions – Writing, Games. Speaking and Primary Latin – all of which were very stimulating. I left with a plethora of ideas to try out, some of which I am sure I will be able to use both to improve my own practice and to pass on to colleagues at our next ALL Leicester Primary Hub meeting in December.

Delegate – Emily Marshall – Sandy Lane Primary, Bracknell:

When I first heard that the wonderful Sue Cave was planning to organise a Languages Show in the South of England, I was delighted! I’d always been keen to get to the shows further North but childcare has always been tricky for me. Then when I heard that it was to be in my home town of Wokingham and that I could literally walk to the event, to say I was overjoyed would be an understatement!

From the moment I stepped through the door, it was clear that the day was going to be a hit; a warm welcome, a goodie bag, tea and coffee flowing and an array of exhibitors to chat to about resources, as well as picking up some freebies! There was such an interesting choice of talks on offer, it was actually very difficult to choose which one to attend for each of the five sessions. As a Germanist it was a real treat to be able to attend some German based sessions on authentic resources and listening skills. The transition between the sessions was very smooth and punctual. All the talks I attended were thoroughly enjoyable, informative and very well planned. Lots of fantastic new ideas to take away with me.

I left the show feeling thoroughly inspired, grateful for the opportunity to network and mix with like-minded individuals, new contact numbers in my phone and my bags full of discounted purchases from the fantastic exhibitors. A huge thank you to Sue Cave for such a well organised event and I’ll keep everything crossed in the hope that there will be another one next year!

Readers can keep up-to-date with plans for a future event by watching their weekly ALLNet message for notifications (ALLNet is an ALL member benefit).  Sue Cave can be contacted at [email protected]