Picture the scene: it’s the day of the long-awaited, highly anticipated school trip. Everyone is off the coach and accounted for. You enter the venue, be it a museum, nature centre, farm, gallery, or historical site, and finally pause to take it all in. But before you can settle into the day, you notice your EAL learners standing apart, looking lost and unsure of what to do next.

This webinar invites you to reflect on how we can better include students with English as an Additional Language during such excursions. What might they be experiencing in these unfamiliar, language-rich environments? And how can we ensure they are able to fully access and benefit from the experience?

Participants will:

• Consider the potential barriers our multilingual learners may encounter
• Reflect on ways to support language development in real-world contexts
• Explore approaches to scaffolding instructions, interactions, and activities
• Think about the role of pre-teaching and follow-up in deepening understanding
• Gather ideas for making trips more inclusive and meaningful for all learners

Since more than half of the world’s learners are multilingual, each participant in a mathematics classroom brings their own combination of languages, experiences and understanding.

Although mathematics is often considered to have a universal language, current ‘language in mathematics education’ research has revealed the complexities of working across natural languages when developing conceptual understanding.

In this webinar, Dr Jo Skelton will introduce some of the key theoretical models of bi/multilingualism and explore some pedagogical approaches that draw on pupils’ linguistic repertoires, which facilitate cross-linguistic and cross-conceptual transfer.

Although the focus of the session is on mathematics, the principles discussed have implications for any content teaching in bi/multilingual settings.

Participants will:

• Understand why mathematics is not always a ‘universal language’
• Explore how current mathematics pedagogy can be utilised to support cross-linguistic transfer
• Consider how explicit linguistic and conceptual connections can be made in classroom practice
• Reflect on how these strategies might be applied in their own contexts

What does the research say about advocacy fatigue, and why does it matter for you, your school and your students?

As the academic year comes to an end and we dare to contemplate the long awaited holiday break just around the corner, the Research Into Practice series reminds us to prioritise self care.

It unpacks the core concepts of teacher wellbeing and advocacy. As multilingual champions, we work to keep the needs of our students in view, often without a second thought. This sustained commitment to carry the needs of our students can come at the expense of our own wellbeing. The symptoms of which are often explained away as part of the everyday pressures of a complex teaching role, rather than recognised early and addressed.

This session invites us to consider the concepts of teacher wellbeing and advocacy and asks the important question: how can we care for ourselves while continuing to advocate for our students?

You will leave with a clear, evidence-informed understanding of:

• Advocacy fatigue - what it is, how it develops, and how it manifests in everyday life
• Practical, sustainable and proactive self-care strategies that support both personal wellbeing and ongoing advocacy

This is an ideal session for educators, teams and schools who are committed to advocating for the needs of their learners, but at the same time, want to understand how to protect themselves in this process.

It reinforces the idea that self-care is not separate from advocacy, but fundamental to it - putting the healthy in whole-school and whole-hearted.

How do literacy skills transfer across languages — and what does that mean for your students?

In multilingual classrooms, students are constantly drawing on what they already know in one language to support learning in another. But this process is not always straightforward — especially when languages use different scripts or structures.

In this webinar, we explore what current research tells us about how literacy skills transfer across alphabetic and non-alphabetic languages, and what this means in practice for international school settings.

Together, we’ll unpack what to look for in your students’ reading and writing, why oral fluency doesn’t always tell the full story, and how to recognise when learners need more explicit support with academic language.

Most importantly, you’ll leave with practical, classroom-ready strategies to help bridge what students already know in their home language with what they are being asked to do in English across all subject areas.

No additional language knowledge required - just curiosity and a commitment to supporting multilingual learners!

In multilingual international schools, inclusion is often treated as support for EAL learners rather than as a matter of design. This webinar reframes that approach, asking: What if inclusion begins with how we design learning?

Drawing on Universal Design for Learning (UDL), the session will explore how teachers can leverage multilingualism, support English language development without reducing challenge, and remove barriers embedded in curriculum, pedagogy, and assessment.

Designed for educators working with multilingual learners, this webinar offers a clear, practical framework for moving from reactive support to intentional, inclusive practice.

Many international schools around the world, by choice or due to local regulations, have host country language as part of their curriculum.

This webinar looks at how international schools approach host country language provision and why careful planning of this provision is essential.

We will look at some of the research which looks specifically at host country language provision in international schools, as well as what aspects of related research can be drawn upon.

You will leave with a clear, evidence-backed understanding of:

• How host country language provision supports academic progress in English and other languages
• Why host country language is key to identity affirmation and inclusion for all students
• Your role in ensuring that your school has a research-driven vision of the role of host country language
• How your school’s provision is meeting the needs of all students

This is an ideal session for host country language teachers, as well as language, curriculum and school leaders.

What does the research really say — and why does it matter for your school?

The opening webinar in the Research Into Practice series sets the foundation for all future sessions. It unpacks the core concepts of linguistic inclusion and explores what decades of international research reveal about how multilingual learners thrive.

This session answers the key question every school must grapple with:
What is the impact — academically, socially, and emotionally — of creating a linguistically inclusive environment?

You will leave with a clear, evidence-backed understanding of:

• How students’ home languages support—not hinder—academic progress in English or other school languages.
• Why identity affirmation and language visibility are essential for wellbeing, belonging, and engagement.
• What the research reveals about translanguaging, bilingual development, and the role of family languages in learning.
• The limitations of ad-hoc EAL interventions, and why whole-school frameworks (such as MTS-ELA and MTS-LLD) lead to significantly better outcomes.
• How inclusive language practices create gains not only for multilingual learners but for all students.

This is an ideal session for schools exploring or already engaging with systematic approaches to EAL and multilingualism.

It provides the “why” that empowers leaders and teachers to commit wholeheartedly to change — and will set the stage for upcoming webinars focusing on leadership, pedagogy, curriculum design, and assessment.