About this project
The Russian Language and Culture project
Russian Language and Culture was a collaborative project by the British Council and the Scotland-Russia Forum in 2020.
The aim of the project is to raise interest in Russia among school pupils in the UK since the Russian language and its culture are rarely part of the regular school curriculum.
The original materials were published in full, as slides, narrated slides and a pdf "Russian Language and Culture Education Pack v1". This version has material suitable for both primary and early secondary students. The authors are Marta Tomaszewski (Russian language section) and Jenny Carr (the rest). The video voiceover for the slides was supplied by a student, Lauren Figes-Jones.
The British Council adapted the materials for children aged around 7-11, adding a number of excellent suggested activities, and published a pdf "Russian Language and Culture Education Pack".
Both these versions were designed to be used mainly by teachers although they were available to interested children and families too. Details and links can be explored below.
And finally the materials are now available on the Russia for kids website - which it is hoped will make them more directly accessible to children themselves. We plan to continue to develop the website so please send us your ideas!
The Scotland-Russia Forum and the authors are grateful to both the British Council and to the project sponsor Future of Russia Foundation for their support.
Russian Language & Culture v1
Jenny Carr and Marta Tomaszewski, on behalf of the Scotland-Russia Forum
Russian Language and Culture Education Pack v1 (Adobe PDF 4MB)
YouTube Russian language and culture slides with voiceover commentary
Slides for the classroom*:
1. Introduction to Russia
2. The Russian language
3. 1000 years of Russian history
4. Ideas on books to read
5. Russia and Space
6. Daily life in Russia
* Download then select "Save" before opening. Do not select "Open with PowerPoint".
Russian Language and Culture v1 consists of an education pack with notes for teachers (or individual readers) and accompanying slide presentations for each of the topics covered. The teaching plans in the education pack provide guidance, notes and further information for the slides. It was created on behalf of the Scotland-Russia Forum by Jenny Carr and Marta Tomaszewski. The voiceover on YouTube is by Lauren Figes-Jones.
Russian Language and Culture v1 is for students in the upper part of UK primary schools and the early years of secondary schools. But can be used by anyone else too!
These materials will introduce you to a variety of aspects of Russia. You will start to learn its language and to decode its unfamiliar alphabet, find out about the huge country, elements of its dramatic history and its exciting contribution to man's exploration of space, sample its rich literary heritage, and get to know a bit about daily life in Russia from some of its young people.
This is a fuller version of the Russian Language and Culture education pack adapted for primary schools by the British Council - details on this page and on www.britishcouncil.org.
Russian Language & Culture
for primary schools
British Council
Russian Language and Culture Education Pack (primary schools) (Adobe PDF 7MB)
This education pack helps primary teachers to introduce some aspects of Russian language and culture to their pupils. It contains lessons and assembly plans, factual information and resources to help pupils develop a deeper knowledge and understanding of the rich language and culture of Russia and the lives of young Russians.
Your pupils can learn how to greet a friend in Russian and start to decode its unfamiliar alphabet, find out about Russia's exciting contribution to our understanding of space and make a balloon rocket. You can also sample its rich literary heritage and get to know about daily life in Russia from some of its young people.
The materials are designed to be flexible and adaptable for use in a variety of settings. They can be used as starting points for individual lessons and assemblies or form part of larger cross-curricular joint projects involving collaboration over a number of subjects.