1. This one’s not light reading – thanks, Amy! – but will repay a half-hour’s quiet attention, Ofsted’s review of research into factors that can affect the quality of education in languages, “its purpose to identify factors that contribute to high-quality school languages curriculums, assessment, pedagogy and systems”. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/curriculum-research-review-series-languages

PDF below, if that’s easier than reading online.

2. This one’s also more of a weekend read with a cup of coffee, the British Council’s fifth annual report on how young people in thirty-six countries round the world view their own countries and the United Kingdom, Global Britain: the UK’s soft power advantage https://www.britishcouncil.org/sites/default/files/global_britain_the_uks_soft_power_advantage_report.pdf Trust in government is diminishing it seems … PDF below.

3. Tonight, tomorrow and Sunday only, The Lisbon Players perform Offstage Stories: the stories of eight people intimately connected with theatre – a cleaner, a critic, an accompanist, a wardrobe mistress, a stage manager, a set designer, a stage-hand and an actor. More info here (scroll right down to book a free ticket) https://lisbonplayers.com.pt/box-office/ Thanks, Karl!

4. And, finally, a simply staggering catch from Indian cricketer Harleen Deol https://youtu.be/SakX1XtRaAU

For those of you less familiar with cricket, the catch would have been ruled invalid if she’d crossed the boundary with the ball, so, with extraordinary presence of mind, she leaves the ball behind on the field of play (in the air), crosses the boundary and returns in time to catch the ball again before it hits the ground. Stunning!