The Kate Languages Blog

This blog post may well be the most boring one I've ever written! But please don't let that put you off... as I think it's also one of the most important ones I've ever written.

If you follow me on Instagram and/or Facebook, you may know that in March 2026 I shared a reel a day with answers to ques...

If you're heading to an in-person MFL conference for the first time, have a look at these tips for making the most of it!

This weekend (13th-14th March 2026), I'm heading to Hinckley, Leicestershire to the Language World conference. Last year, I attended as a speaker, but this year I'm going to be ...

One of the hardest things for students to get right in the writing exams is the 150-word question in the higher paper. It's designed to let the grade 7-9 students really show off what they can do... but it can also leave them feeling lost and stuck for ideas.

That's why I've created 2 new lessons f...

If you only know these three things about the new AQA and Edexcel French, German and Spanish speaking exams, you'll go far!

I know that the new speaking exams are on a lot of MFL teachers' minds at the moment. As you get closer to the exams, I'm sure you have more questions than ever - don't forget...

In an ever more polarised world, I believe it is more important than ever to teach and learn languages, and this is why...

1. Learning a foreign language teaches us that some things are just different, and that "different" doesn't mean "bad" or "stupid". They're literally just different.

2. Learni...

I grumble a lot about the prescribed vocab lists (and I'm sure I'm not the only one) but there are a few things that I do actually like about the new exams.

So, here are 3 things I like about the new French, German and Spanish GCSEs:

1. The rubrics being in English.

I think for the writing and sp...

Love it or hate it, AI is here to stay, and I have started to use it a lot to help me create the lessons and resources that are for sale on the Kate Languages website.

In the latest episode of the Kate Languages Podcast, I answered a great question that someone DMed me recently, which was:

Do you...

And how you can, too!

This week (19th - 24th January 2026) is "Shout out for German" week - a time to celebrate teaching and learning German in the UK, so I wanted to share some ideas about how to keep German alive and well, in spite of many schools' best efforts to get rid of it!

Many of you don'...

The title of this blog post might seem a bit weird (especially if you haven't seen or listened to the latest episode of the Kate Languages Podcast!) - lots of people didn't move house last year, so why on earth am I telling you that I also didn't move?!

Well, the fact is, we were supposed to move h...

I'm not going to lie... getting my head back into work mode after a break isn't easy.

Goals are not to do lists!

Often, when we think about setting goals, we just write out a list of things we want to accomplish by a set time, but I believe that goal setting is a lot more than just a "to do" list.

It can be really hard to work out what your goals are and even harder to actually sti...

To textbook or not at KS3?

I was asked this question for a Q&A episode of the Kate Languages Podcast. Here is a brief summary of my thoughts - for more detail, listen to the episode in full here.

1. Use textbooks as your framework. Treat your textbook as the bones of your scheme of work, not a rig
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