Upcoming events

Check out the latest events on the Teacher Portal

Let's talk about...

Each week we'll set a topic to discuss and have a very informal chat in three parts:
1. Question of the week
2. Let's talk about...(topic nominated by Teacher Portal)
3. Any questions about your classes, teaching, career advice, student management or just life in general. (Though we might not be able to answer the life questions, we'll give it a go.)

  Not sure what it'll be like? Take a sneak-peek inside   

Communicative tasks your learners will love

Shaun Sweeney
May 14th 2025, 4.30pm UK time

Great lessons start with great tasks! In this webinar, we’ll explore how to select, design, and implement engaging tasks that drive learning. You’ll discover:  easy, low-prep ways to assess learners’ needs, structure lessons using a task→ teach→ task approach, and how to get the most out of tasks in your classroom.

Whether you're teaching General English, specific purposes or exam prep, you’ll leave with some practical strategies to make your lessons more dynamic and learner-centred.


Shaun Sweeney is a teacher and trainer with 25 years of ELT experience. His key interests include listening skills, task based learning and syllabus design.
Originally from the UK, he has worked in various countries and contexts, with longer stretches in Italy, Spain, the UK and Japan.
He currently lives in Ireland, and in 2020, he co-founded Dublin TEFL, an online training centre and consultancy providing teacher qualifications and tailor-made teacher development courses.

Same but different

Katy Kelly
June  11th 2025, 4.30pm UK time

In this interactive webinar we’ll explore what we mean by mixed level classes and how “being a mix” plays out between learners. We’ll consider the challenges for us and them, by sharing our experiences and talking about how we’ve tried to overcome these. In order to explore the options available to us when working with mixed level classes, we’ll evaluate some common practices. Together we’ll share what we have tried and what’s worked and what has worked less well and consider why. Through practical examples and by focusing on specific activities we’ll consider some possible simple tricks and tweaks we can make to our activity choices, set-up and outcomes. By the end of the webinar, it is hoped that we will have a better understanding of how we can support mixed level classes and maximise participation and learning. 

Katy Kelly is a freelance teacher trainer and materials writer, specialising in early years, primary and secondary education. She has worked in the public bilingual sector and for private education providers, such as the British Council, Cambridge University Press, International House, Bell English in Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, Asia and South America, providing face-to-face and online training on YL methodology, CLIL and train-the trainer.
She has written the phonics section for a CUP primary book series, tests for a primary series, a three book KG series, KG and primary curriculums for local governments and worked on book adaptations for several publishers.
She is a regular conference presenter and delivers webinars for teachers from various countries.
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NEW!
Live lesson planning

Our new monthly live event is designed to support you in your lesson planning.

Watch our latest 'Top tip for lesson planning' and see how this could benefit you. 

Then choose the time that works best for you and bring along questions, materials, ideas and experiments to share with colleagues and trainers. 

This is free to all members of the Teacher Portal. 

Live session help

If you're having problems with our live lessons, don't worry, we've put together some advice to make sure you have the best experience possible.