Book Creator | Mother Tongue Other Tongue

Express Yourself North East Festival of Languages ran in March 2021 as a virtual celebration of the languages and cultures in the region and our connections to the world. As part of this, we reintroduced to the region Mother Tongue Other Tongue, to enable children and young people aged 7-18 to express and share poetry in their home language (Mother Tongue) or languages they are learning (Other Tongue).

Throughout the following pages you will be able to read some of the beautiful submissions in our Mother Tongue Other Tongue celebration.

We received over 65 submissions across 23 languages all of which are spoken across the North East.

We are very grateful to the teachers, families, teaching assistants, homework clubs and schools who throughout March 2021 encouraged learners to engage in creativity, be poetic, be reflective and create some of the pieces you will be able to read across the following pages.

We would like to extend our thanks to the Routes into Languages team at Manchester Metropolitan University who allowed us develop a version of their Mother Tongue Other Tongue competition for the Express Yourself: North East Festival of Languages.

We would like to thank Declan Baharini at International Newcastle, Andrew Grenfell at Newcastle University and Steven Fawkes at the Association for Language Learning North East for their support and commitment.

We would like to thank Holly Pennal and the student ambassadors at the Learning Resource Centre at Newcastle University for their appraisals of every piece submitted.

Thank you to Routes into Languages NorthEast for their support and expertise.

It has been a joy to work on the Mother Tongue Other Tongue celebration as part of the inaugural Express Yourself: North East Festival of Languages

Crista Hazell
MTOT Project co-ordinator

With thanks to:
Benfield School
Castleside Primary School
Esh C of E Primary School
La petite école de Newcastle
N.E.S.T Homework club
Our Lady's and St Bede's Catholic Academy
Royal Grammar School Newcastle
St Paul's C of E Primary School
Wingate Primary School

Ancient Greek
Ayesha Bajwa