1. This year’s IATEFL Themes online conference is this coming Saturday 2nd and Sunday 3rd November, and it’s 50% highlights from this year’s f2f conference in Brighton in April (on Saturday) and 50% Special Interest Group (SIG) presentations (on Sunday). More info and registration here https://www.iatefl.org/events/621 Programme preview below.
IATEFL Themes is free if you’re a member of IATEFL or an associate member of IATEFL through your local English teachers’ association: details of associate membership in the flyer below, if you’re not yet a member.
2. Macmillan English Young Learners’ Festival is on 4th, 6th & 8th November, repeated at 10:00, 14:00 & 21:30 each day. More info, including programme and registration here https://www.macmillanenglish.com/test-page/young-learners-festival
The world inside a child’s head truly is a magical one, and the best part is that it’s totally unique for each child. They all have their own dreams, ideas, experiences and abilities, which, to say the least, offers a certain level of challenge for their brave, creative and patient teacher! The Young Learners’ Festival will shine a spotlight on various development opportunities for teachers of young learners like individuality, personalisation, respect, imagination and academic progress.
Macmillan also have a Connecting Teens Day on Tuesday 19th November and an Educating Adults Day on Wednesday 4th December, both repeated three times in the course of the day.
3. No fewer than three pieces from Ipsos, the polling company:
What Britons are expecting/fearing from tomorrow’s budget https://www.ipsos.com/en-uk/half-britons-more-fearful-hopeful-about-how-labours-budget-announcements-will-impact-public
A technically over-complicated but rewarding piece on British Brands https://www.canva.com/design/DAGTj0mFh2g/ioNSHMo4aGyOs6jwpgtgow/view
And the latest in the Ipsos KEYS series of webinars, Global Trends 2024: In Search of a New Consensus, which presents the new Ipsos set of nine global trends https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvungLJ7okM
Screenshot of those nine trends below, just in case that’s helpful
4. Fleur Adcock died earlier this month at the age of 90. Here’s the Poetry Book Society’s tribute to her, one of her own poems, Magnolia Seed Pods
MAGNOLIA SEED PODS
Among the wonders vouchsafed to me
during my suburban wanderings
in two countries, this one and that one,
were these exotic excrescences,
each a miniature pineapple,
framed in petals the size of saucers.
The first I saw were strewn underfoot,
with no magnolia bloom in sight:
a mystification until I asked.
It was late in life when I found them.
Who would have thought I’d still be allowed
to walk out freely where there were trees
and carry on as I’ve always done:
picking things up and looking at them?
I’ve attached a picture of a splendid looking magnolia seed pod below!
Here’s Fleur reading her own work (and looking very healthy) earlier this year https://vimeo.com/976452996
5. And, finally, which twenty novels are represented in the picture below? Answers on Thursday!
Roy Cross's Blog 
