Independence Day is a celebration for all Americans, but for some it has special significance. It’s a traditional day for holding naturalisation ceremonies, welcoming new citizens to the U.S.A. A total of 878,500 people obtained U.S. citizenship through naturalisation in 2023. Ceremonies take place all year round, but a lot take place in honour of … Continue reading “Becoming American on the Fourth of July”
The Paris 2024 Olympic Games welcomes a new sport: breaking, or break dancing. Breaking originated in the Bronx in the 1970s. It has its roots in hip-hop culture, but has long been a competitive sport. In Paris, 16 men and 16 women (known as “B-Boys” and “B-Girls”) will engage in an epic battle for the … Continue reading “Let’s Dance at the Olympics”
On 4 July, British citizens will vote in a general election. It is widely expected that the Conservative Party, which has been in power for 14 years, will be defeated. British voters knew they would be called to the polls for a general election at some point in 2024 but Prime Minister Rishi Sunak surprised … Continue reading “The UK Goes to the Polls”
Britain’s Women’s Prizes for 2024 have been awarded. The prize for fiction goes to American author V. V. Ganeshananthan for Brotherless Love, set during the Sri Lankan civil war. And the non-fiction prize, awarded at the same time this year, goes to Canadian author Naomi Klein for Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World, about … Continue reading “Women’s Prize Winners 2024”
General elections in the U.K. have a lot in common with French legislative elections. Here are some resources on the British system that can help pupils think about democracy and compare and contrast the British and French systems. The video on this page has a 1-minute explanation of how a general election works, written for … Continue reading “Teaching About the UK Electoral System”
The two main candidates for the 2024 U.S. Presidential election will participate in a TV debate on 27 June, months earlier than in usual campaign years. Donald Trump and Joe Biden aren’t even officially the Republican and Democratic candidates yet: that will happen when their parties hold their national conventions, from 15 July for the … Continue reading “Biden and Trump Debate”
We challenged your pupils to write stories inspired sport and the Olympic Games. We were stunned by the imagination they showed. We got thousands and thousands of entries and it’s taken a while to read them all, but we can now announce the authors of the winning texts. We’ve split them into pages by level, … Continue reading “Winning Texts: Sports Stories Competition”
We received thousands and thousands of fabulous entries to our sport-themed creative-writing contest. Here are our favourite lycée texts entered as B1. They are incredibly varied, which is an accurate reflection of all the stories we received. They cover sports from Formula One racing to baseball, as well as football, figure skating and wheelchair racing … Continue reading “Sports Stories Winners Lycée B1”
We received thousands and thousands of fabulous entries to our sport-themed creative-writing contest. Here are our favourite lycée texts entered as B2. There are a couple with an equestrian theme, and others on athletics, figure skating, volleyball, cycling, badminton and Gaelic football. Plus one that is out of this world! And the winners are, in … Continue reading “Sports Stories Winners Lycée B2”
We received thousands and thousands of fabulous entries to our sport-themed creative-writing contest. There were a few that were much longer than our suggested word count but that we couldn’t resist including. They all take a fairly fantastical look at the sports theme. And the winners are, in no particular order: Chiara from Mme Marlot’s … Continue reading “Sports Stories Winners Outsize”
