Community Languages Schools Program conferences

The Community Languages Schools Program runs a number of conferences every year, designed specifically for teachers in community languages schools. Information and flyers about the conferences are emailed to community language schools and posted on the Program’s Facebook page.

Sydney Institute of Community Language Education

Sydney Institute of Community Languages Education (SICLE) provides a number of NESA-accredited professional learning programs for teachers in NSW government-funded Community Languages Schools. Each of the programs cater for a different level of experience within the community language school hierarchy. SICLE also delivers quality teaching and language specific workshops and hosts a repository of shared teaching resources for community language teaching and learning.

Community languages teaching program

It is important for community language teachers to be trained whether they are paid or voluntary. The Community languages teaching program, a course delivered by SICLE, helps participants become more effective classroom teachers. It covers practical aspects such as lesson planning, teaching activities and classroom management. Participants observe classes in primary schools. The program also provides an introduction to:

The program also provides an introduction to:

• the mechanisms by which children learn
• recent approaches to education
• teaching approaches suited to students of different ages and abilities
• how to engage students who have special needs.

The assignments are practical and involve preparing resources and classroom activities. Programs are offered in various venues around Sydney and Wollongong, as well as via mixed mode/online delivery.

We subsidise this program so your teachers can complete the course. It runs over one semester every year.

Courses and workshops for your school

Program education officers offer a range of education and training activities either online or at your community language school or at an outside venue, together with other community languages schools.

Workshop topics include:

• managing the classroom
• improving spoken language
• planning lessons
• using language syllabuses
• designing a unit of work
• assessing and reporting student achievement
• scope, sequence and programming
• developing relationships with your host school
• teaching mixed ages and abilities improving students' reading and writing
• using and teaching text types
• using technology for lesson preparation.

Hunter Community Languages offers a range of free online courses for community languages schools’ teachers and managers.

Association of Community Language Schools provides free training for community languages schools’ teachers and managers. You can join their Google Classroom with this code: hce3fce

NSW Federation of Community Language Schools offers a range of professional learning opportunities for teachers and managers.

Contact your Program education officer for more information.

The Department of Education has a team of primary and secondary languages experts that provide statewide support to languages teachers in NSW schools. Community languages teachers can now access resources, professional learning and join languages networks to support their professional growth.

Primary languages networks

Regular network meetings are organised by network leaders, with support from the Primary Languages team. Primary languages networks are communities of teachers and curriculum advisors that support teachers with the implementation of the Modern Languages K-10 syllabus in the K-6 setting.

Network meetings are held once a term and can be accessed face-to-face and online. There are 12 primary language networks for Arabic, Chinese, Community Languages (for teachers of Assyrian, Dari, German, Hebrew, Khmer, Macedonian, Persian, Russian, Samoan, Serbian and Turkish), French, Greek, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, South Asian Languages (for teachers of Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Nepali, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu), Spanish and Vietnamese.

To enrol in a network meeting, go to MyPL and search the course code NR36349, select Primary Languages Networks and then click on the relevant meeting session.

Further information, including a schedule of network meetings, can be found in the online calendar at https://education.nsw.gov.au/teaching-and-learning/curriculum/languages/professional-learning-languages-k-12.

To create a MyPL account, follow the instructions to obtain a MyPL username and password. Use this guide to enrol in a session on MyPL.

Languages NSW website

The Languages NSW website is open to everyone and has the latest information and news about professional learning and any other events related to languages.

To receive the latest related to languages, you need to subscribe to the website. Please visit https://www.languagesnsw.com/ to subscribe.