1. This year’s ELTons awards ceremony will be live online at 13:45 UK time on Monday 15^th November https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/eltons-innovation-awards-2021-live-online

and the shortlisted finalists this year are a truly global collection: New Zealand, Japan, Russia, China, Brazil, Gaza, Belarus ….  https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/eltons-innovation-awards-2021-finalists

2. I’m not entirely sure what to make of a report entitled ‘Building a more equitable, sustainable, peaceful world through international exchange in a post-pandemic world’ written by the following countries (only): Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, the United Kingdom, and the United States https://education-services.britishcouncil.org/news/reports/building-more-equitable-sustainable-peaceful-world-through-international-exchange-post See what you think?

To be fair to my British Council colleagues, they do observe in their contribution that “ … tolerance for inequity in partnerships between developed and developing countries is wearing thin. Low- and middle-income countries are demanding to be at the table when international research projects are discussed, fully involved in their design and equal recipients of the rewards – such as enhanced institutional reputations”. PDF below.

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3. Next Wednesday, 10^th November, at 16:00 UK time, Christopher Hart from Lancaster University will be giving the first talk in this autumn’s GoldLingS series on ‘Animals vs Armies: Metaphors and Metaphor Resistance in Anti-Immigration Discourse’. More info and booking here https://www.gold.ac.uk/calendar/?id=13772

“Immigrants to the UK are routinely denigrated by mainstream media as part of longstanding campaigns for more restrictive immigration policies. Amidst this discursive context, public attitudes toward immigration are generally negative (…) In this talk, I consider two metaphorical themes characteristic of anti-immigration discourse: militarising metaphors and dehumanising metaphors.”

4. You might like to pop into the PEN blog, Transmissions, over the weekend https://pentransmissions.com/

This post by Andrew Lownie, The Mountbatten Materials: Censoring an Archive, was a bit dispiriting, though https://pentransmissions.com/2021/11/02/the-mountbatten-materials-censoring-an-archive/

5. And, finally, this really can’t be right, can it? https://www.theguardian.com/education/2021/nov/04/a-was-average-a-level-grade-at-independent-schools-in-2021-dfe-data-shows