UCL To Develop £15m School Language Learning Programme
UCL’s Institute of Education Building
Photo courtesy of Ethan Doyle White
IOE, UCL’s Faculty of Education and Society will develop a new £14.9m language programme in schools over the next three years. From September 2023, the IOE will establish a National Consortium for Languages Education (NCLE), featuring 25 lead schools, that will specialise in language learning and then help up to 105 partner secondary schools. Lead schools will be models of best practices and experts in training language teachers.
The NCLE aims to offer a range of online resources to assist teachers in their lesson planning and assessment of language learning in the transition from primary to secondary school. It will focus on widening opportunities for students with disabilities or special education needs, as well as students from disadvantaged backgrounds. Strategies have been proposed to encourage more boys to take up modern foreign language (MFL) qualifications.
Government ministers awarded UCL the contract after a sustained decline in students taking up GSCE and A-level MFLs, including French, German, and Spanish. Of the £14.9m, £400,000 is ring fenced for learning German language skills, which the government views as a strategically important language. Consequently, the Institute of Education will work with specially trained German teachers through a partnership with the Goethe-Institut to grow the number of students learning German at both primary and secondary school.
Alongside the NCLE, up to five schools will be selected to expand the Home Languages Accreditation project, which helps bilingual students to attain GCSEs or A-levels in their home or heritage language. Minister for School Standards, Nick Gibb, emphasised how a strong UK economy “needs people who can communicate across the globe and trade with overseas businesses.”
Professor Li Wei, Director and Dean of IOE, echoed Mr Gibb’s comments, saying she hopes the project will be “re-energising language teaching in schools across the country”.