Brazilian children's writer Délcio Teobaldo was a speaker at the Portuguese Achievement Conference that took place at the Purcell Room in London's Southbank Centre on 21 June.

Délcio's talk on 'How to Engage Young People in Creative Writing' was extremely well received. Flown from Rio de Janeiro by the Embassy to take part in the conference, Délcio signed copies of his latest Portuguese-language novel, Pivetim, in which he shares his intimate knowledge of the lives of Rio street children. He will be running various workshops in Lambeth schools over the coming weeks before returning to Brazil.

The Portuguese Achievement Conference is an annual event organized by Lambeth local authority, which has the highest number of Portuguese-speaking schoolchildren of all London's boroughs. It is attended by local authority employees, educational researchers and members of the Portuguese-speaking community.
After a recent report by the local authority found that lusophone pupils tend to lag behind academically and yet their specific needs tend to be overlooked, the conference discussed the successful experiences of Lambeth's Ethnic Minority Achievement Team in raising educational achievement levels.

Speakers and group discussions covered a range of subjects including the impact of the Portuguese-speaking community on local life, the psychiatric approach to increasing children's confidence, international links between Portuguese and Brazilian schools, and the Embassy's Brazil in the School resources. The event also featured a Brazilian drumming performance and songs in Portuguese from the choir of Wyvil Primary School, whose work is one of the results of Lambeth's 'Sing Portuguese' project.