Yorkshire and the Humber

An Active Languages event for Yorkshire and The Humber region was held at the University of Leeds on Wednesday 8th July. The event was co-organised by Routes into Languages Yorkshire and The Humber, (Kerry Dobson, Project Manager) and The Youth Sports Trust, (Bev Whiteside).

A total of 16 schools were invited to attend the event, places were offered on a first come, first serve basis. Participating schools were to be recruited from the Yorkshire and Humber region. Sixteen schools were selected on this basis, although only 14 were able to attend the event on the day, due to last minute illness or problems with staff attending. Details of the schools that attended can be obtained from the Excel spreadsheet attached to this report.

Each school was asked to nominate a member of staff from their MFL department and PE department, and a total of 28 teachers were present on the day, with both departments represented equally.

The programme involved a talk by Bev Whiteside (YST) highlighting activity that has taken place in various parts of the country combining sport and languages, and the rationale behind the purpose of such activity. This was followed by a presentation from Alison Lucas of the Oasis Academy, Immingham on how combining languages and sports really work. Practical sessions followed with the 28 teachers split into two groups, with one group participating in a demonstration and practice of tag rugby with French run by Vicky Heslop of Bath Rugby Community Foundation, and the second group taking part in trampolining with French run by Josette Arnold and Amanda Cundle of Bowring Comprehensive School, Liverpool. Both groups then swapped sessions after 45 minutes.

The afternoon was spent working with the 14 schools and asking them to prepare a proposal to submit to Routes into Languages by 22nd July 09. The teachers were paired with their colleague from PE/Languages departments in their schools, and together they are to submit a proposal to run a pilot project in their school, commencing in the autumn term of 2009 – 10 of the academic year. If successful in the submission of an effective proposal, each school will be awarded a sum of £1000.

Routes and the Youth Sports Trust are looking for proposals that effectively combine any sport with the languages taught in the schools participating. By carrying out a pilot project like this, we aim to encourage schools to look at ways of embedding language learning and sport activities, and build on the success of the pilot project. Therefore activity needs to be sustainable, not just a one of event that only the two members of staff concerned can sustain. The aim is to encourage other members of the two departments to become involved and build on what takes place initially in the pilot.

All participating schools will be expected to submit case studies at the end of the academic year, and to distribute attitudinal questionnaires to their students at the beginning of the project and again at the end, so impact can be measured.

The aim is to show-case activity at the end of the year and invite schools who did not participate in this scheme to attend, with a view to disseminating new ideas and best practice.
 

Friday 19th June 2009 - Dr Penny Simons, from The University of Sheffield accepts an award certificate from Ruth Linden of the Regional Language Network Yorkshire & Humber, on the behalf of Routes into Languages, Yorkshire & The Humber.

On the evening of 19th June, 80 regional schools and businesses were represented at the Annual Regional Language Network Celebration of the Yorkshire & Humber Business Language Champion Project. Taking place at the Novotel, Sheffield, the themes for the evening were: Collaboration, Motivation, Inspiration, Acheivement and Opportunity. A statement from the Education Secretary, Ed Balls, was read out in support of the collaboration between languages and enterprise education.

Routes into Languages, Yorkshire & The Humber was presented with a certificate for its commitment in supporting language learning.

Kate Board, Chief Executive of CILT and key note speaker at the event, commented on the amount of activity taking place in Yorkshire & The Humber, describing the projects as "uplifting".

Chief Executive of Bradford City Football Club, Dave Baldwin, offered to make links across the region with other major football clubs, in an effort to use their pulling power to encourage children in language learning

For further information on the Business Language Champion scheme, please click here

The ten year anniversary of European Charter for Regional and Minority Languages coincided nicely with the launch of Routes into Languages, Yorkshire and The Humber Consortium on Wednesday 24th September and just two days before the European Day of Languages on the 26th. The event, which took place at The Deep, Hull, was designed to show how exciting learning modern languages can be and to spread the idea that it can be fun and inspiring.

Routes into Languages consortia are working in all the nine regions of England, following on from the recommendations of Lord Dearing in his languages review, which recognised a decline in language take up. Each consortium is a collaboration between universities, schools and colleges. The Yorkshire and Humber consortium which began its activities in January of this year, is a partnership of all Yorkshire Universities and plans to open up modern languages to 40 schools in this region, with visits, workshops and exhibitions. The plan is to reach more than 10,000 young people over the next three years. In the first six months, the Yorkshire and Humber consortium have already reached 19 schools and 4,000 pupils in the region.

The launch event on the 24th September, had the support of Hull City football club and three of its international players, Richard Garcia, Kamil Zayatte and Daniel Cousin. The players took time out to meet young people interested in learning modern languages. As Rob Smith, marketing manager of Hull City said "Languages are very high on the agenda at Hull City since the recent arrival of our international signings. We now enjoy the massive global media attention of international players like Kamil, Zayatte and Geovanni attract. Hopefully through these role models, we can help spread the awareness that there are some great opportunities in the region to encourage young people to learn another language, and we are very pleased to be supporting Routes into Languages."

Dr. Marina Mozzon-McPherson, Consortium Director for Routes in Languages, Yorkshire and The Humber, added her thanks to the players and said "The Tigers helped us to bring languages alive tonight. This project is bringing together young people, employers, parents and teachers to ensure young people understand the relevance of studying languages for their future career prospects and as an enrichment for their lifestyle."

Pupils from Longcroft School of Performing Arts, Beverley, provided a brilliant show for the evening with a group performance of Spanish dancing and singing, French singing and a German lullaby. Pupils from Wombwell School in Barnsley and Kelvin Hall in Hull gave talks about how they enjoyed language learning and hoped to continue studying languages.

Summing up the success of the event, Marina Mozzon-McPherson said "The excellent performances from the schools of our region are testimony to the strength of the partnership that exists in this regional consortium."

Routes into Languages has been funded with £8m over three years by The Higher Education Funding Council of England and The Department for Children, Schools and Families.
 

This event was an introduction to Routes into Languages, aimed at those interested in promoting languages, in particular teachers from schools and colleges in the region. The event was organised by the University of Hull and held at the Yorkshire Rail Academy on 2nd July, 2008. Over 60 teachers from 30 different schools and colleges attended.
The day began with a presentation by Dr. Marina Mozzon-McPherson, Consortium Director for Routes into Languages, Yorkshire and The Humber, outlining details of the project. This was followed by a presentation on the employers’ perspective by Dr. Sandra Potesta, Director of the Regional Language Network, Yorkshire and The Humber, together with a talk by Claire Oxley of the National Rail Academy. Ms Ann Gregory, Comenius Centre Manger at York St. John University, ended the presentations with a talk on Languages and the Profession, a Teacher’s Perspective.

A plenary session examined ways in which MFL teachers could engage and challenge language learners, using the support of Routes into Languages partners. This was an opportunity for those teachers present to discuss barriers to language teaching and discuss what strategies could be adopted to engage young learners. It was also a chance for Routes into Languages partners to present details on successful schemes that have been used in schools to date, such as student ambassadors providing support in schools for pupils preparing for GCSE oral exams, the use of Business Language Champions, Language Days, revision classes, and to look at ways those attending the dissemination event could utilise such schemes in their schools.

The event was a great success, with many of the teachers who attended subsequently contacting Routes (Yorkshire and The Humber) to look at ways they could engage with partners involved in the project. Feedback was extremely positive and as a result, there are a number of schools in the region with whom we are aiming to establish links with to support the promotion of languages regionally.
 

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