19th November 2019

The amazing journey of sixteen six-year-old EAL new arrivals entering the mainstream

Author: Sarah Jones, EAL Coordinator, Lea Forest Academy   In September 2015, Lea Forest Academy took on an additional class of 16 Year 2 newly arrived […]
7th November 2019

The Learning Village has been shortlisted for the BETT 2020 Awards!

We’ve done it again! The Learning Village has been shortlisted for the BETT 2020 Awards! These prestigious awards celebrate the real creativity and innovation that can […]
24th October 2019

NALDIC Conference 2019

Across Cultures and the Learning Village will be exhibiting at the 27th Annual NALDIC Conference held on 16th November 2019 at King’s College London.  NALDIC’s 27th […]
11th October 2019

The Learning Village wins a three-star award!

We feel honoured to announce that the Learning Village has won a three-star award in the Teach Primary Awards 2019! It was only four years ago that […]
25th September 2019

Home-school Partnerships: Ideas to engage newly arrived parents

Author: Yzanne Mackay   “Parental involvement is invaluable for any new arrival in transition. The learner’s family may be the only group of people who truly […]
3rd September 2019

Designing a supportive EAL resource

Authors: Caroline Scott, Yzanne Mackay   “Scaffolding is the process a teacher uses to model or demonstrate how to solve a problem (in the case of […]
19th July 2019

It’s official, we’ve been shortlisted again!

Teach Primary Award: LITERACY/ENGLISH RESOURCE “Resources designed to promote the development of pupils’ spoken language, reading, writing and vocabulary.” This comes swiftly off the back of […]
17th July 2019

Northern Education Show 2019

Across Cultures and the Learning Village will be exhibiting at the Northern Education Show 2019 held on 9th October in Manchester. It is the region’s leading event […]
4th July 2019

Communication through images

Author: Anita Bamberger   When considering the Chinese language, the Chinese proverb ‘a picture paints a thousand words’ is apposite. Chinese is a complex language of […]
2nd July 2019

An English as an Additional Language (EAL) Programme

You enjoy teaching and, like every other teacher, you want the best for every learner. Recently, you have found a steady stream of learners coming to […]
5th June 2019

An Edtech Pilot – using the Sentence Analyser

Author: Sarah Jones, EAL Co-ordinator   The Sentence Analyser was piloted by the children and staff in the EAL Hub at Lea Forest Academy in the […]
13th May 2019

Is Maths really a universal language for EAL learners?

Author: Yasmin Malik, Senior Education Consultant   Maths is often a subject that is not given the same priority as others when it comes to the […]
21st March 2019

Try your own ‘Introduce Me’ activity

Author: Stuart Scott This ‘Introduce Me’ activity is a fun and rewarding way to introduce a new topic, while developing language skills. It’s ideally suited to […]
28th February 2019

A pathway for induction-to-English

Author: Caroline Scott In cases where you have an absolute beginner to English, an induction-to-English is supportive. Yes, we need to be differentiating for the curriculum content […]
21st February 2019

Across Cultures is an ERA 2019 Finalist!

We’re really excited to tell you that we’ve been shortlisted as a finalist in the Education Resource Awards (ERA) 2019. The news comes hot on the […]
19th February 2019

2019 Multilingual Learning Conference

Across Cultures and the Learning Village will be exhibiting at the 2019 Multilingual Learning Conference on 1st-3rd March in London. The conference will be held at […]
30th January 2019

Education ‘EdWards’ Awards Ceremony

We are honoured to have been awarded an Education EdWard, which acts as Recognition of Evidence Informed Practice. The EdWards are associated with the EDUCATE programme. They […]
29th January 2019

COBIS Annual Conference 2019

Across Cultures and the Learning Village will be exhibiting at the 38th COBIS Annual Conference on 11th-13th May 2019 at the InterContinental London O2 in Greenwich, London. You will […]
22nd January 2019

How do I pilot an edtech learning tool? A tool for linking to whole-class teaching

Author: Sarah Jones Introduction Lea Forest, my school in Birmingham, has been using the Learning Village for over three years. It has proved a highly effective learning […]
12th December 2018

EAL Development at Tudor Primary – A school using the Learning Village

Authors: Caroline Scott, Heather Day, Ragini Patel Three years ago, Heather Day, an EAL consultant, contacted us about piloting the Learning Village in an inner London […]
11th December 2018

Education EdWards

We are honoured to have been awarded an Education EdWard, which acts as Recognition of Evidence Informed Practice. The EdWards are associated with the EDUCATE programme. They […]
11th December 2018

BETT 2019

Across Cultures and the Learning Village will be exhibiting at BETT 2019 at the EDUCATE part of BETT Futures on Wednesday, 23rd January 2019 at Excel […]
4th December 2018

Education Show 2019

Across Cultures and the Learning Village will be exhibiting at the Education Show on 24th-25th January 2019 at Excel London. Designed for the purchase decision makers […]
4th December 2018

EAL Teaching webinars

We will be hosting a number of exciting live webinars revolving all around EAL Teaching. These 45-minute webinars will feature the Learning Village and various other […]
27th November 2018

Friendship building for new arrivals

Author: Caroline Scott, author and director   The National Learning and Work Institute (2018) completed a randomised controlled trial of a Community-Based English Language intervention aimed […]
3rd October 2018

Piloting the ‘Sentence Analyser’

Author: Sarah Jones, EAL Coordinator   There is a plethora of things to consider when piloting a new learning resource or scheme of work, so having a […]
5th September 2018

Working with an EAL Development Plan: Steps to Create Whole-School Change

Author: Gemma Fanning, Head of EAL   How can you take your EAL department forward to play a part in a whole school development strategy? Over the […]
3rd September 2018

New company name

We have shortened our name from Communication Across Cultures to Across Cultures, and we have a new domain name: www.axcultures.com. Our email addresses are changing as […]
6th August 2018

LV News Sept 16

13th July 2018

Teaching note-taking skills

Author: Emma Mijailovic, EAL Teacher   Many researchers agree that note-taking is an important skill, as it facilitates learning from text (Kobayashi 2006, Rahmani and Sadeghi […]
19th June 2018

Marking and Feedback

Author: Gemma Fanning, EAL Specialist   Marking and feedback is a crucial part of any teacher’s workload, and is essential for EAL learners. The importance of […]
19th May 2018

Giving learners ownership over their learning

Author: Sarah Jones, EAL Coordinator   Studies have found that learning a skill yourself, and then applying it, not only brings immense personal satisfaction (among other valuable […]
8th May 2018

Bedford Borough Council EAL Conference – Thursday 12th July 2018 – Park Inn Bedford

Caroline Scott, author and director at Across Cultures will be giving a keynote speech at the Bedford Borough Council EAL Conference on Thursday 12th July. For […]
15th April 2018

My experience of bilingual schools

Author: Anita Bamberger   The popularity of bilingual schools is increasing. This can be seen, for example, in the growing number of French schools in London, […]
5th April 2018

ELT well

Are you interested in research and good practice on EAL learners who have Specific Learning Differences? You can find quite a few resources on Specific Learning […]
5th April 2018

The Language Show

Now in its 30th year, Europe’s largest language event returns to Olympia in 2018 with new dates and improved talks, classes and features. The latest products […]
6th March 2018

21st Century skills for EAL learners

Author: Gemma Fanning, EAL Specialist   The term 21st Century skills is becoming significantly part of the classroom learning environment, but what exactly does that mean? […]
2nd February 2018

SATEAL Conference

Scottish Association for Teaching English as an Additional Language. We will be exhibiting the Learning Village at this conference. Outreach Centre 9c Holyrood Road The Moray […]
23rd January 2018

37th COBIS Annual Conference

The 37th COBIS Annual Conference will take place at the InterContinental London O2 in Greenwich, London, 12-14 May 2018. We will be exhibiting the Learning Village at this […]
17th January 2018

EMAS Portsmouth Conference 6th March 2018

Superdiversity and success: outstanding practice for Portsmouth schools We will be exhibiting the Learning Village at this conference. Tuesday 6 March 2018, 9am – 1pm Marriot […]
3rd January 2018

What does a picture tell you?

Author: Sarah Jones, EAL Coordinator, Lea Forest Academy “One look is worth a thousand words.” Barnard (1921), Chinese proverb. Images are powerful as they can usually […]
7th December 2017

Raising (self) awareness of neurodiversity: learning about ourselves in comic form

Dr Anne Margaret Smith Truly inclusive practice extends beyond adapting materials or managing the classroom so that everybody can access the course content. It is about […]
6th November 2017

How does ABC International School use the Learning Village?

Academia Británica Cuscatleca (ABC) in El Salvador joined the Learning Village in April 2015.  However, they weren’t fully active across Upper Primary until Across Cultures came to their […]
2nd November 2017

The importance of the mother tongue in the classroom

In my experience, teachers often have quite strong feelings about the use of a pupil’s L1 (first language) in the classroom – it is either encouraged […]
2nd November 2017

BETT AWARDS FINALIST 2018

Announced today: www.LearningVillage.net – BETT Awards Finalists 2018… Whole school aids for learning, teaching and assessment. It’s been a long journey from creation to piloting to […]
9th October 2017

Should EAL learners be withdrawn from the mainstream classroom?

Author: Gemma Fanning, EAL Specialist While it can be argued that EAL learners have an entitlement to experience a full and varied curriculum through complete class […]
7th September 2017

How can you possibly feel included if you don’t understand the language at all?

EAL: Excluded by inclusion By Kamil Trzebiatowski Here’s an extract: “Have you ever seen a child cry because they couldn’t understand a language? Crying their eyes out […]
6th September 2017

Collaborative learning – how do I group learners for the most effective learning experiences?

When we attempt to facilitate effective communication or collaborative learning between pairs or groups, we must acknowledge that our pupils are not only exchanging information; they […]
5th September 2017

NALDIC Conference 25. Educating multilingual learners in the 21st Century – November 18th

NALDIC’s 25th annual conference will consider the current state of play in the education of multilingual learners in the UK and implications for our work and […]
28th July 2017

Collaborative Learning

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Collaborative Learning site, it’s full of excellent resources that are completely free. Last month, Gemma Fanning talked […]