'Belonging: A Spotlight on Multilingualism' - Better Bilingual Conference

Come join us in person as we dive into the amazing world of multilingualism! This event celebrates the beauty of speaking multiple languages and explores how to harness the advantages it provides to build 'belonging' in secondary schools, primary schools and Early Years settings.

If you're interested in harnessing the 'super-powers' of bi- or multi-lingual learners (BMLs) - whether you're a BML parent/carer yourself or an education leader determined to improve the 'sense of belonging' for pupils in your school or setting - this is the Bristol conference for you!

Did you know that one in five pupils in England speak English as an Additional Language (EAL)?

Did you know that in the new OFSTED inspection framework, inspectors are explicitly asked to consider how schools support pupils at the early stages of learning English?

Join our Better Bilingual conference on 28th January in Bristol to connect with school and Early Years leaders, BML parents, specialist teachers, expert consultants and a range of exhibitors to explore practical and research-underpinned approaches to 'belonging' for multilingual learners and families.

Don't miss out on this fun and inspiring gathering!

Our Better Bilingual specialist education conference for Spring 2026 is designed to showcase creative innovations in multilingual pedagogy and to connect education leaders with experts and each other. Aimed at a highly targeted audience of senior leaders in education, this forward looking conference is closely aligned to our ‘equity in education’ mission.

‘Belonging: A Spotlight on Multilingualism’ conference will take place on Wednesday 28th January 2026, at The Foundation (below Triodos Bank) in central Bristol. This ‘invitation only’ conference aims to attract 50-100 attendees, including education leaders (of learners 3-18), multilingualism specialists, experienced teachers, trainee teachers of the future and multilingual parents/carers.

We are thrilled to welcome two national experts in multilingualism in education, Soofia Amin (the Tapscott Learning Trust) and Dr Sabine Little (University of Sheffield).

• motivational presentations by classroom teaching innovators
• lived experience reflections from multilingual learners and parents
• exploration of ‘Belonging’ themes through panel discussions
• opportunities for strategic planning (e.g. for OFSTED), facilitated by Better Bilingual
• 'hot off the press' information about Better Bilingual webinars and CPD
• informal, relaxed opportunities to connect and network over coffee/lunch.

Details of our generous sponsors, classroom teaching innovators and exhibitors to be added shortly.

Inspiring school leaders to embrace an ‘asset-based’ mindset with respect to the multilingual diversity in your school, MAT or organisation, this Better Bilingual conference seeks to showcase multilingual innovations, to provoke reflective discussions and to accelerate strategic planning with a wealth of ideas to promote ‘Belonging: A Spotlight on Multilingualism’.

Build capacity in your school and MAT to harness the super-powers of BML learners!

What was your favourite part of this Better Bilingual Event?

• Learning about what people do in their schools
• Meeting the Better Bilingual team, especially Catherine
• Seeing the teachers from Southville Primary sharing their work
• The variety of presentations on multilingualism
• Networking and listening to inspirational people
• Meeting EAL / Multilingualism leaders and teachers from other schools
• The celebration event in its entirety
• All the presenters and' success stories' were champions for multilingualism
• All of it - the talks and the stalls were equally helpful
• The food was delicious
• All good, though would have to say that hearing Soofia's presentation was just so inspiring. I am encouraged by what she has achieved - I wanted to clap her all the way through!

With reference to the final feedback comment above, we had a number of evaluation comments similar to this, which is why we have invited the inspirational Soofia Amin (photo below) back to speak again (and for longer this time) at our 'Belonging Conference'! Thank you to all who provided feedback!

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