Yorkshire and the Humber

Designed by teachers in Sheffield secondary schools and supported by The University of Sheffield, this scheme aims to make pupils more aware of the opportunities languages can offer.

Year 8 language classes in local schools 'adopt' 2nd Year University Language Students, about to embark on their Year Abroad placements. Before the students leave, they will visit their chosen school, meet the pupils and tell them a little about what they plan to do on their year abroad. An online blog will be set up that the school pupils can access. This will be updated by the university students, on a regular basis, so that the class can see what exciting things they've been getting up to, find out how the culture differs from their own and what learning a language abroad is like.

The students, on their return from the year abroad, will go back into each school and continue to support pupils' language learning.

Schools involved for 2009/2010:

Tutors from the University of York will provide taster language sessions in Arabic, Japanese and Chinese at Fulford School. There will be six 30-minute sessions per language, over the course of 5 months.

Year group: 8 & 9

Number of pupils involved: 40 

Staff from the Open University will support and mentor Year 11 and Year 12 pupils at Minsthorpe Community College, in the run up to exams.

Year Group: 11 & 12

Number of pupils involved: 25 from each year

Two native Spanish speaking university students from Leeds Metropolitan University will visit the school over a period of 11 weeks, to offer support for Year 11 pupils in the run-up to their GCSE oral exams. The sessions will take place on Friday lunchtimes, for 1 hour each week.

Year Group: 11

Number of pupils: approximately 8 pupils attending each week

Student ambassadors play a vital role in events and projects, aimed at increasing the uptake of languages from secondary school to Further and Higher Education. With 10 universities involved across Yorkshire & The Humber, we offer a huge pool of talent, just waiting to be tapped into! 

Who are the ambassadors?

Ambassadors are recruited from language degree courses, or they are international students who have chosen to study in this country, as part of their year abroad. This mix of nationalities offers you and your pupils the opportunity to meet a variety of native and non-native speakers, who can encourage language uptake and develop language-learning skills. Many of the ambassadors we use have recently returned from studying abroad. They are keen to pass on their experiences and talk to pupils about the advantages a second (or even third!) langauge has given them.

What can we offer?

• Across the region, our partner institutes offer you a variety of ways in which student ambassadors can provide support. There is always a strong team of ambassadors present at university-based language events: helping to guide pupils around campus, answer any questions they may have, offer assistance during language taster/revision classes and passing on their enthusiasm for language-learning.
• Away from the university environment, ambassadors and staff from partner institutes regularly travel to schools in Yorkshire & The Humber. We can deliver talks on the importance of language-learning, Q&A sessions with our ambassadors and short language-based activities, such as quizzes, to get pupils thinking differently about languages.
• If you are after something more, a number of our partner institutes have recently begun sending ambassadors into schools to offer assistance with language classes, revision sessions in the run-up to exams and even after hours taster classes in languages such as Chinese, Japanese, Italian and Russian.

What do you need to do?

If you would like further information, or you would like to arrange a visit to your school, contact the Yorkshire & The Humber team on routes@hull.ac.uk

Please provide details of your school, a suitable contact person, what kind of support you would like and when you would like it. This information will be passed on to your nearest Routes into Languages representative and they will contact you in due course. We will try to cater to your needs as best we can, but we do ask that you send your requests as early as possible, in order to guarantee a visit.