Thousands of students are benefitting from high quality language teaching and a new centre of excellence
CREDIT: This is an edited version of an article that originally appeared on gov.uk
Thousands more students will benefit from high quality language teaching as part of a programme to boost the number of pupils taking languages like French, German and Spanish at GCSE and A level.
Leading schools in language teaching will form a new centre of excellence, comprised of up to 25 schools, which will work with other schools to improve standards of language teaching across the country. The programme will be backed by £14.9m over the next three years.
The programme will deliver on the pledge made in the schools white paper to create a network of language hubs and build significantly on the previous modern foreign languages hubs programme, which was made up of nine lead schools.
Languages are a key part of a broad and balanced curriculum and evidence suggests that learning a language has strong economic benefits, including improving international trade. The British Council’s ‘languages for the future’ identified that Spanish, Mandarin, French, Arabic and German are the top five priority languages which could improve the UK’s skills, security and influence in the world.
This initiative will support the Department for Education’s ambition that 90% of Year 10 pupils in state-funded schools study a combination of the core academic subjects as part of the EBacc by 2025; this includes a language.
It will give teachers the rigorous training and knowledge they need to support pupils in learning some of the most prominent global languages and will also raise the profile of learning German in schools, including increasing awareness of the benefits of studying it, by setting up a German promotion project. Included within the investment, this project, worth £400,000, will involve increasing the number of teachers of German in schools and will champion German as a subject.
The DfE has successfully launched hub programmes for other subjects in the curriculum including English and mathematics, linking schools across the country to subject specialist schools – also known as lead hubs – which can support the enhancement of quality of teaching.
The lead hubs will engage with schools to improve the languages offer and ensure more effective transition from Key Stage 2 to Key Stage 3, as well as ensuring pupils aged 14-to-18 from all backgrounds have the opportunity to study languages through to Key Stage 5.
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