Dare to Dream in EnglishSeptember Newsletter 2021
News from Anglia HQWelcome to the September newsletter for Anglia Examinations. A message from Steve Bannister, CEO of Anglia Examinations: How time flies here at Anglia. It is hard to believe that I have now been with Anglia for just over a year, and what a year it has been! During the past twelve months we have launched a new website, developed ever-closer ties with our trusted franchise partners and, together with the global Anglia family, ridden out the storm that has been the global pandemic. And while the storm has not yet completely passed, we are pleased to start seeing signs of recovery. The past year has also seen our partnership with Aim grow from strength to strength. We’ve welcomed new Anglia partners on board from Greece, Italy, a variety of CIS states and most recently in Morocco. The Anglia network is increasing and the last year has also seen the recognition of our C2 Mastery exam by UCAS here in the UK which has been a real game changer in terms of the credibility of Anglia exams. However, if there is one truly positive thing that has come out of the global pandemic, it is surely the fact that we are all connected and all dependent on each other. It has made us value the power of friendship and of meaningful relationships. It has also served to underline the value of, and need for, effective communication. All of which just leaves me to thank the amazing Anglia team, both at HQ and around the world, for all your hard work during these tough times. It is a privilege to work with such dedicated and passionate professionals. Over the coming twelve months we aim to build on the Anglia brand, continue with our campaign for recognition of our exams with employers and educational institutions, and to press on with our mission of helping people to dream in English. Anglia Symposium We are rescheduling the symposium from November 21 to February 22. This will include a day online full of workshops and guest speakers. We will be holding competitions in the lead up to the event with idea that the winners will present their entry on the day. We look forward to inviting everyone: the partners, staff, markers, moderators, teachers and students of the Anglia community. More details to follow. News from EuropeAnglia GreeceA new, promising academic year has already started and we are so glad that we can meet our Foreign Language school partners live. The preparation for the Kick off presentation of Anglia in Greece has already started. We are so glad that Alice and Claudia will honour us and will not only present but also "walk" the participants in the paths of Anglia - AIM QUALIFICATIONS English Certification. The event will take place on October 14 and we are all thrilled about it. For more information please visit our Facebook/Instagram accounts: AngliaExams.gr or visit our website: www.angliaexams.gr Moreover, brand new preparation material is coming soon.... Stay tuned... Anglia CyprusNew academic year. New goals. New expectations. Earlier this month, we had our annual meeting of Anglia Offices/Representatives in Cyprus. We set out our new goals for the coming academic year and we discussed and found ways to tackle minor issues that arose in the previous academic year. Our main goal for this year, along with others, is for our examinations' top four levels to be accepted by all colleges and universities in Cyprus, when candidates are required to have proficiency in English for admission to their courses. We have already contacted all 44 colleges and universities on the island and we are waiting for their responses. We have also come in contact with several social media advertisers and experts, as this year, we aim to upgrade our marketing and advertising strategies. We believe that seeking out help from professionals in this field is essential in today's digital world. Finally, we would like to wish you all a successful and productive academic year. Let us all hope that this year will be a lot better in terms of the pandemic and that we will soon return to normality. Anglia SpainNew Academic Year September is a month of new beginnings, which has found us with large amounts of work due to the start of a new academic year - this means a new stage full of good energy, hopes and expectations from students and teachers alike. The Anglia Spain staff worked hard throughout the summer to make sure all our members feel supported when they are back on track. Words from Monica Blanco-Kunz, CEO at Anglia Spain I would like to give the warmest welcome to all our exam centres and teachers who have started their courses this month. For me, it is not only a new academic year, but a fresh start for Anglia Spain as I am now physically based in Almeria, where we run the main Anglia Examinations hub in the country. We have an exciting year ahead and I wish the best to all our Anglia members who have continuously trusted and supported us all these years. For those brand new Anglia members, I hope you have a great experience with us! We will make every effort to make you feel fully supported all the time. Have a fantastic school year! The Anglia E-Congress This month we have launched our annual Congress. We have a spectacular line-up of international speakers, including the Group Director of International at Chichester College Group and CEO of Anglia Examinations, Steve Bannister, Chief Examiner at Anglia Examinations, Alice Osman, and our President for the Ibero-American Network, Chris Kunz. Over a dozen plenaries will be held over the course of three consecutive days: October 29th, 30th & 31st. The Congress is open to all English language professionals, and Anglia members can attend for free! If you’d like to attend, you can register here: https://forms.gle/RvXjjvGNh9CmSKLo9 Contact us if you have any questions: contact@angliaexams.com Recognition It’s official! The Education Office in the Autonomous Community of Castilla La Mancha has finally published their updated Official State Bulletin ‘Boletín Oficial’ this past month. Students from the area can now accredit their level of English with Anglia Examinations as our qualifications are recognised and accepted in the whole community. We are super motivated and keep seeking to achieve more and more recognition so as to keep encouraging people to dream in English. Information Meeting Towards the start of the month, Yanina Parada, Country Manager, delivered and information meeting for Anglia exam centres. We believe continuous as well as fluent communication is always needed to build strong bonds among people. This is why we have decided to open a space where we can assist all our exam centres so they feel confident from the moment they give Anglia information to their students until they actually sit our exams. The meeting was really fruitful and we are planning to organise one more for those who could not attend, but are still really interested in finding out more about our organisation. Thank you very much for your support. New Contacts and Exam Centres This month, a new Language School from Sevilla has jumped on board our boat. Welcome Languages School Sevilla to this great community that grows day after day, not only in Spain but also throughout the world. Exam Sessions This September there have been exam sessions in the cities of Ciudad Real, Valdepeñas and Alcázar de San Juan in Castilla La Mancha; in the city of León in Castilla León; in the cities of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia, in the cities of Lugo, Miño and Ferrol in La Coruña; in the city of Armilla in Granada; in the cities of Nerja and Ronda in Málaga; in the cities of Almería, Benamejí (Córdoba) and Aguadulce (Roquetas de Mar, Almería) in Andalusia; in the city of Valencia; and in the city of Zaragoza in Aragón. Exam results as well as certificates have already been sent to those students who had registered for our Fast Track results and Online options. Congratulations! Good luck to all the candidates who are still waiting for their exam results! We have already begun receiving exam registrations for October. Teacher Training Session Alice Osman, Chief Examiner for Anglia Examinations, and Yanina Parada, Country Manager for Anglia Spain, delivered a special virtual Teacher Training Session for our exclusive exam centre in Lanzarote, on the Canary Islands. The session was perfect for the new staff of teachers who are getting ready and organising everything for the new academic year. Thank you all for attending! If you would like your teaching staff to be trained or to have an update on exam preparation, please do not hesitate to contact us: contact@angliaexams.com News from Aragon We are proud to launch a new initiative in Aragon which will not only continue to help candidates achieve the exam results they want, but will also help the environment! Going Green with Anglia will see trees planted for every candidate taking their B1-C2 paper-based exam with us, from October this year! The project, headed up by the Local Agent in Aragon, Peter Vooght, will see the local area around Zaragoza regain vegetation and reverse local desertification. Anglia always enables people to dream in English and helps the environment! We have also launched the local Instagram page, @angliaexamsaragon, and are currently running a raffle giving followers in Aragon the chance to win an OFQUAL-approved Anglia exam of their choice, B1-C2. Meet our Local Agents Pablo Keenan – Ferrol, Galicia My name is Pablo Keenan and I am Director at two Language Schools in the region of Ferrolterra. My wife and I have been working with Anglia for many years now and we are Local Agents in the territories of Galicia, Cantabria, Castilla y Leon, y Asturias. We do a very active job in the areas where we work, and spread the Anglia Word not only from home but physically when we visit potential exam centres. We would like to highlight the fact that our adult students have been able to present Anglia Certificates to apply for a job and actually have started working at “Astilleros Ferrolanos” (Navantia Company). This has also happened with other companies related to the same business, where they require their employees to have a B1, B2 o C1 level of English. It’s a pleasure for us to be part of the Anglia Family. We will continue to work hard in order to get more and more candidates for Anglia exams. Testimonials We would like to share words from Brenda Bertin, Head of Studies at our exclusive exam centre in Valencia. They, definitely, say it best! Anglia NetherlandsGreetings from the House of Europe Sunday was the European Day of Languages (EDL2021). As the European Commission has appointed Anglia as the official EDL representative in the Netherlands, we were invited to the House of Europe in The Hague. Our colleague Melanie and Emma Hartkamp of the European Commission were hosted an Online Quiz between schools in EU countries on our Online Platform.
New Guide for Anglia Coordinators Every year, Dutch Anglia schools get a new Guide for Anglia Coordinators, with all practical information for the new school year. They get this together with their Anglia Membership Card (with login codes for the members and student Portal. After a final check, this new edition is ready to be ordered. Anglia Certificates presented by the mayor A very festive and special day at the Doornveld primary school in The Netherlands. The mayor of the town came to the school personally to present the Anglia certificates. What an honour! Picture: Jaco Hoeve. Join Building Bridges: International Communication Project for schools Join our Building Bridges Project and be part of a unique international project on our Online Learning Platform. Contact angela@anglianetwork.eu for more information and registration.
By joining students will: · be partnered up with school from other countries. So they can get in touch with international students; · get exciting live meetings with international participants on our Online Learning Platform, where they can have conversations in small groups in break out rooms and learn more about life in another country; · make short clips/videos about interesting topics, based on students' interests, which they will share with the other school's students; · get access to fun activities on the platform, which will help them improve their English skills in a fun, innovative and active way; · record Sound Bites and Balance Boosters to improve speaking skills and learn new vocabulary about 5 interesting topics. We also offer fun presentation skills practice; · get Computer Analysis Reports on writing at B1, B2 and C1 levels; · receive personal feedback according to the Anglia marking system. News from Latin AmericaLuckily for all of us, these past few weeks have shown a steady decrease in Covid-19 cases and spring is in the air. Many schools in many provinces and departments of the region have come back to face-to-face classes and things are going, slowly but steadily, back to normal. This month, we give new members from Mendoza, Buenos Aires, Salta, Misiones and Chubut in Argentina, Maldonado and Rivera in Uruguay, Santa Cruz de la Sierra in Bolivia, Itapúa in Paraguay and Villavicencio, Meta, Facatativá and Cundinamarca in Colombia - our warmest welcome to the Anglia Family. We've had yet another successful exams session this month. Early in September, candidates from Colombia and Argentina took both the Paper-Based and Online exams. We are now in the thick of organising the October Session, as well as November and December ones. As the end of our school year nears, we have an ever-increasing number of candidates registering for exams. We’ve also conducted teachers’ professional development sessions and carried out parents’ meetings this month, to help everyone get ready for the last part of the school year. Thank you all for joining us! Anglia Central Exams Office All the Anglia staff are now working partially from home and going to the office in small groups twice a week. We are thrilled to be back. At our offices, we are still processing and sending certificates to all candidates who are sitting our exams month after month. If your students still haven’t received their certificates, please contact Alejandra Blanco at: info@angliaexams.com. You can also buy your Step To Books by contacting us via email or popping by our offices in the City of Buenos Aires. We accept credit and debit card for all purchases. Meet our Team Guadalupe Rodriguez – Operations Manager at Anglia Ibero-America Guadalupe Rodriguez has been in touch with Anglia from her pre-teen years, first as a candidate, and later as a student at Chichester College. After many years of knowing the Local Franchisees, she started working at the Anglia Central Exams Office for the Ibero-American Network in 2013, once she completed her degree in Conference Interpreting. She started out as Exams Coordinator & Speaking Assessor and in 2018 became Operations Manager for the Latin American Network. Our Social Media Throughout September, the star posts were, undoubtedly, those in which we sent our compliments to all teachers, professors and students, congratulating them on their very special days. What we most appreciated were the messages which came along with their likes. We like to know that we are with them every step of the way. If you haven’t seen our social networks yet, what are you waiting for to follow us? You can find us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram. Remember what we say over there… #betterwithanglia. Anglia Congress We are very excited to be approaching our XVII Anglia Congress. This annual event is the biggest gathering for Anglia Members within our Network, as well as for English language professionals from all over our Network and beyond! Our Congress Programme will be announced very soon! Join us virtually on October 29th, 30th & 31st. The Congress is open to all English Language Professionals, and Anglia Members can attend for free! If you’d like to attend, you can register here: https://forms.gle/RvXjjvGNh9CmSKLo9 Anglia ArgentinaTestimonials We’d like to share with you two testimonials. One of them is from one of our Official Exam Centres in the south of the country. Britannia English institute shared a memorable moment with parents and students when the Presentation Ceremony of the 2020 Anglia certificates took place last 28th August. Silvana Cristaldo, Director of Studies, stated “Undoubtedly, these certificates have a special meaning for all of us. Needless to say, we are immensely proud of our students because in spite of the unpleasant and unstable situations we all had to cope with last year, they did not give up; putting all their efforts into making the dream of having an international certificate come true.” Britannia has been an Official Examination Centre in Caleta Olivia, Patagonia Argentina since its very beginning in 2019. A new Britannia venue was opened this last July in Pico Truncado, Santa Cruz, which will certainly turn to be a successful Anglia Centre next year. The second one, is from Lucrecia Tombetta, a loyal member who was been spreading the Anglia word in the heart of the country for many years. Anglia @ FAAPI On September 17th, 18th and 19th, we were present at the FAAPI annual Conference for teachers. This year the event was held virtually and Anglia & CCG proudly sponsored Chris Kunz’s and Alice Osman’s semi-plenaries. Guadalupe Rodriguez & Chris Kunz also offered a presentation to further spread the Anglia and CCG words to all attendees. Anglia Peru
Words by Local Agent, English Connections We are proud to announce the start of our online training course for teachers in September and October. They are showing enthusiasm to get involved into the amazing world of Anglia Examinations. The syllabus and extra material have been prepared by our Headmaster Mg. Raúl Merino for the B2 and C.I.T.E. (Young learners) exams. We are looking forward to welcoming our colleagues. Anglia ChileOur Local Agents in Chile, SBS Educación, share their news with us. Blossoming flowers and warmer days are coming back to Chile! Yes, spring is here and it brings new energies to finish this last part of the year. A group of students from Santiago got their certificates after passing their Anglia Examination for B1 and B2 level,s and we had a beautiful ceremony in Covid style!. We encourage all our candidates to check our exam dates for the following months because time flies! Greetings from Chile to all our Anglia members. Anglia ParaguayChris Kunz, President of the Ibero-American Network, delivered a semi-plenary session as part of the Paratesol 2021 Conference. Paratesol is the Paraguayan Affiliate of TESOL (Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages). Thank you, Chris, for sharing with all of us your expertise. Anglia ColombiaThis month we have had paper-based exam sessions at Colegio Gimnasio Campestre La Fontana as well as at INCSEP, Instituto Colombiano Superior de Educación y Pedagogía. The sessions ran very smoothly and some candidates, who were sitting an Anglia International exam for the very first time, reported to have had a really nice experience. We do hope we can see all these candidates sitting their next Anglia exam level again soon and to continue growing in the country. Anglia UruguayCandidates from all over the country thoroughly enjoyed their Spring week between 20th and 24th September, to increase their stamina for the November/ December exam session. Some of them are regular candidates who have been taking Anglia exams for years now, and to some of them, it will be the very first time sitting an international exam. Needless to say, once again, this years’ session is shaping up to be even larger than the previous ones! We’ve also shared our love with all teachers on their day. |