1. Rose Aylett and Martyn Clarke from NILE will be reflecting on Learning Partnerships: Lessons from PRELIM for Eaquals at 14:00 UK time this coming Friday, 8^th October. More info here https://www.eaquals.org/eaquals-events/event/rose-aylett-martyn-clarke-learning-partnerships-lessons-from-prelim/ and registration here https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Y5QICsOUS8mJ0Sob641Ccw

You can find a copy of Rose and Martyn’s report on PRELIM 1 below, including reports on all twenty partnership projects: from Afghanistan, Argentina, Bangladesh, Brazil, Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Cuba, Georgia, Guinea Bissau, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Palestine, Serbia, Thailand, Uzbekistan, Vietnam and Zambia!

2. We’ll be formally announcing PRELIM 2 tomorrow. It’s again a partnership between English UK, IATEFL and the British Council, and will again be managed for NILE by Rose and Martyn. This time round, though, it’ll be offering no fewer than forty partnership grants. IATEFL are offering three webinars this Wednesday, 6^th October, at 09:00, 14:00 and 21:00 UK time (to ensure everyone around the world has the chance to attend) to explain how an English teachers’ association applies.

Please note that an association does not need to already be an Associate of IATEFL in order to apply; we very much hope, though, that the experience of PRELIM 2 will encourage associations that aren’t yet IATEFL associates to apply!

The joining details are the same for all three sessions: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/5463972657?pwd=dXkvbm5rcXJjYzVSeVZBejdCMzRhQT09 Meeting ID: 546 397 2657  Passcode: 944064

3. Very short notice – sorry! – of an event at 12:00 UK time tomorrow, Tuesday 5^th October, to mark the 60^th anniversary of the DAC – Development Assistance Committee: more info here https://www.oecd.org/dac/development-assistance-committee/dac-60-years/ and registration here https://meetoecd1.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_7caDdJ4SSEWXGf2Ek2mmhA

The DAC’s best known and most widely-used work is their list of countries worldwide eligible for ODA – Official Development Assistance. PDF below.

4. One of my favourite travel writers, Iqbal Ahmed, has just returned to Kashmir for the first time since the pandemic started. Here’s his Postcard from the High Himalayas https://coldstreampublishers.com/postcard-from-the-high-himalayas/ Wise, quiet observation and never in your face!

5. And, finally, you (and your students?) have only 525 episodes of the BBC Radio 4 programme ‘Great Lives’ to choose from, including Sitting Bull, Maria Montessori, Chinua Achebe, Xuanzang, Frida Kahlo, Donna Summer – and my childhood hero, Billy Bremner!

Programme home page here https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qxsb

and all 525 episodes here https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qxsb/episodes/player