Translators in Schools
Translators in Schools is an education programme of the Stephen Spender Trust. To find out more, please email info@stephen-spender.org and join our mailing list.
Funded initially by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and European Commission, Translators in Schools was launched in 2013 as a professional development programme to widen the pool of translators and teachers with the skills to run creative translation workshops in schools. Translators in School now counts public events and consultancy among its areas of activities and has become part of the wider multilingual creativity movement showcased by Free Word’s Multilingual Creativity Lab in November 2015 which was co-curated by the Translators in Schools team. Watch the Translators in Schools film to discover more about the philosophy and methodology behind our workshops.
Creative translation workshops can be a transformative experience for children in primary and secondary schools, as demonstrated by Translation Nation, which delivered translation workshops in primary and secondary schools between 2010 and 2014. This award-winning project was run by the Stephen Spender Trust and Eastside Educational Trust, curated by Sarah Ardizzone and Sam Holmes and funded by Arts Council England, the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and the Mercers’ Company. Translators in Schools draws on the lessons learnt from Translation Nation. For more information, please see About the Project.
Translators in Schools has twice been nominated for the Threlford Memorial Cup awarded by the Chartered Institute of Linguists for its work in promoting interest in learning foreign languages.
Children raved about the workshop on the way back to school; they shared it with a passion and urgency with peers in class in a manner that demonstrated a fundamental shift in thinking and perception … This was one of those professional opportunities that changes you. It opened up a whole new realm of possibilities in the classroom. It was priceless
Mike Flowers, Hillcross Primary School
I just wanted to say how inspired I was by yesterday’s course. It has given me many ideas to take away and think about. It showed me how I can combine my love of teaching with that of translation
Dr Jenny MacKay (translator from German and Spanish into English)
Wow, what a day! Great to put it all into practice and a lovely experience working with such creative young minds.
Annabel Booker (teacher of Spanish)