This is a fantastic way to get young people excited about languages and reading – and to consolidate their learning through self and peer assessment.  It’s also a great way to celebrate the European Day of Languages – and to bring a big splash of colour to the classroom!

The aim of the project, which gets different schools working together, is to re-engage young people with reading for pleasure, and to get pupils to share their work with a wider audience. This sharing dimension has a number of positive outcomes. Firstly, it gets people collaborating and providing well thought out and fair judgements of each other’s work. Secondly, it encourages pupils to take pride in their work, greatly improving accuracy in the target language.

Pupils are asked to produce mini-booklets on a topic of their choice for a particular audience (language learners). Each book is made simply from an A4 sheet of paper, colouring pens, and a healthy dose of imagination. What’s great about the project is that it’s a manageable task with a clearly defined purpose and audience. It also works across all abilities and areas of interest, since pupils can chose their own topic and write at whatever level they please.

And the next stage? Well, 750 mini books made the final display this time round, but plans are in place to open the project out to schools across the whole of Essex – covering an even wider range of languages and pupils. Phase two of the project also has an ambitious international target:  to get 100,000 books made in more than 11 countries across five continents.

Language(s): French, German, Spanish

Quartier Rouge is a network of 19 secondary schools in Essex. 11 schools took part in this particular project, with King Edward VI Grammar School taking the lead.