On Wednesday 13th July Routes into Languages Yorkshire and the Humber held their final celebration event to mark ten years of successful collaboration throughout the region. The event enabled us to meet and thank our colleagues and contacts throughout the Yorkshire and Humber area and our partners in other regions across the country.
The celebration showcased our most successful activities and projects from the past eight years, in order to inspire teachers to replicate them in their own schools. There were presentations by the University of Leeds on their flagship residential stay ‘Linguastars’, the University of York gave insights into their successful online quiz project, Leeds Beckett and Sheffield Hallam discussed their innovative Language Drama Workshops and Languages Film School and the University of Sheffield shared their experiences with their ‘Adopt a Class. Project, as part of a Widening Participation venture to expand student horizons. The University of Hull showcased their four most successful projects and events that have been created and delivered as part of the ‘Languages in Context’ thematic strand over the past 8 years. These were: Active Languages, Die Mauer, The Languages and Design Competition and finally the Languages Through Science resource.
Student Language Ambassadors have been at the heart of the Yorkshire and the Humber activities so it was fitting that three of them shared their experiences with us. Without exception all said that their participation had been a key part of their university experiences and felt that they had experienced a significant gain in confidence and employability skills.
We also enjoyed an excellent performance by Beverley High School pupils, which reflected on their individual successes at the Spelling Bee and Trans Bee competitions over the past six years.
Finally, it was an opportunity for teachers and partner organisations to network, share good practice and discuss future language projects in the region.
I would like to personally thank all our wonderful regional partners from Universities across Yorkshire for their commitment to the project and for being such a supportive and welcoming group of people. Without such a great collaborative and friendly approach we could never have achieved what we have done since the start of the project.
Students from across the region and beyond have benefitted hugely from the thousands of events and activities that have taken place not only across Yorkshire and The Humber, but across England and Wales as a whole.
If we have made a difference to even a small percentage of students throughout the past eight years in terms of inspiring them to continue with their language study into FE and hopefully into their careers, then it has been a job well done.
Claire Barber
