On 8^th June, the Rothschild Foundation welcomed 15 teachers to The Dairy on the Waddesdon Estate for a workshop on translation in the classroom led by the Stephen Spender Trust. The Foundation was especially pleased to open its doors to teachers from local schools in the Aylesbury area and offer a wholly subsidised professional development opportunity.

The teachers started the day working on a translation of ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ and followed up with a break-out session, led by professional translators offering expertise in a number of languages and styles of literature. It was a lively and creative session with plenty of debate, discussion and group work. Participants left the workshop equipped with practical techniques and lesson plans to incorporate into their work with multilingual and monolingual pupils. Translators-in-residence at selected schools will offer further support to embed these techniques in the long-term.

The Rothschild Foundation is keen to assist disadvantaged students who are not taught in their first language, to celebrate diversity and to support literacy standards in schools. This established partnership with the Stephen Spender Trust will promote the benefits of multilingual activities on language learning and National Curriculum objectives in literacy, modern language and citizenship. The Rothschild Foundation will continue to support the Stephen Spender Prize for literary translation in the coming months.