Yesterday was the first day of the conference, dedicated mainly to Primary age young learners. After a warm welcome by Robert Taylor (Director of the British Council, Milan) and Wendy Arnold (IATEFL Young Learner SIG), Gisella Langé (Ministry of Education Inspector for schools in Lombardy) gave a fascinating presentation touching on all three strands of the conference (Assessment, CLIL & Learning Technologies)

Gisella tied the three threads together by speaking about creativity and innovation in ELT, and mentioned examples of European projects and guidelines such as the '8 key competencies for lifelong learning', which were developed in 2006 by the European Parliament (http://ec.europa.eu/education). These include competencies of communication (in the mother tongue and in a foreign language) and digital competence among others.

She spoke of examples of innovative projects such as INDIE (Inclusion and Diversity In Education), which has involved learners in drawing up a charter (in 10 languages), whose focus is upon diverstiy and inclusion in schools. She finished her presentation with a reminder to us all that we should be creating conditions to help our students be more creative. A very inspiring presentation indeed.

Gisella Langé was followed by the first plenary speaker, Professor Emeritus Richard Johnstone, who delivered a thorough presentation on the different models and aspects of CLIL, along with extensive information about research projects and outcomes, as well as pedagogical implications for teachers wanting to involve their own students in Content and Language Integrated Learning.

The presentation was warmly received and proved to be an appropriate start to a very intensive day of presentations and workshops.