Making Languages Count Clare Allison – King Edward VII School

1. Making Languages Count Clare Allison – King Edward VII School Caroline Norman – Languages Sheffield

2. Today’s Presentation Local context Introduce the project Bilingualism Mainstream School Setting Complementary School Setting Partnership working Practical steps Achievements, recognition and challenges Next steps Comments and questions

3. The Sheffield Context

4. The Sheffield Context 120 languages are spoken in Sheffield 24 linguistic communities Arabic, Urdu, Bengali, Cantonese, Mandarin and Somali Tigrigna and Dari

5. Languages Spoken in Sheffield Schools

6. The “Our Languages Project” www.ourlanguages.org.uk Multi-agency project Partnership working between mainstream and complementary schools Paul Hamlyn Foundation http://www.phf.org.uk/landing.asp?id=3

7. Bilingualism

8. Common Myths Bilingualism is a barrier to learning “Academic language proficiency transfer across language such that students who have developed in L1 will tend to make stronger progress in acquiring literacy in L2” (Cummins, J 2000) Forget your Mother Tongue Bilingualism is socially divisive

9. “I am proud to speak Chinese but am sometimes bullied for that reason by racist people in my school” “Chinese helps me learn German and science”

10. The Mainstream sector

11. Why aren’t more mainstream schools accrediting home language? Lack of Awareness Limited Capacity Lack of linguistic expertise

12. Why should the mainstream care? The student The school The community

13. The Complementary Sector

14. Complementary Schools Lack of recognition/status Sometimes small and vulnerable Work in isolation Lack of resources/venue Restricted access to training opportunities

15. Complementary Schools Have huge linguistic and cultural knowledge Participation of families Run and trusted by the community “Complementary schools provide a reassuring environment or ‘safe space’ for multilingual practices…a space that is generally lacking in other domains of contemporary British society” (Li, Wei 2011)

16. Complementary Schools “[Complementary] schools provide children from minority communities with dedicated and hard-working role models from their own cultural backgrounds” (John Lyons Charity, Supplementary Schools: A new approach)

17. Collaborative Advantage

18. Collaborative Advantage Mainstream Schools Students from many linguistic communities Complementary Schools Students from many different mainstream schools

19. Collaborative Advantage HoLA combines the expertise of both sectors We facilitate partnership working between both sectors HoLA takes a strategic city-wide approach to provide practical support

20. Practical steps

21. Practical Steps Consultation of stakeholders Building replicable models Training of mother tongue experts Intensive language courses and mock exams Feedback, predicted grades and advice City-wide approach to oral exams

22. Practical Steps Consultation of complementary school tutors Bespoke training programme Mentoring programme Teaching and learning resources Paid employment Recognition of linguistic expertise

23. Participation Children’s University Credits, Certificates and Award Ceremonies Working with languages that have no accreditation Adding to city-wide data Outcomes Star

24. The HoLA Project so far… • 517 students are having their language learning recognised and rewarded by the Children’s University • 113 students last academic year supported by the HoLA Project gained a national accreditation in their home language (Arabic, Chinese (both Cantonese and Mandarin), Bengali, Dutch, Greek, Japanese, Persian, Portuguese, Russian and Urdu • 12 Complementary schools are directly involved in HoLA, with many more being indirectly supported through the project

25. Recognition

26. Recognition European Language Label 2012 Mary Glasgow Trust Award 2012 Association for Language Learning (ALL) Flagship project for PHF Requests for advice and support (regional and national)

27. Next steps

28. The HoLA Project – Next Steps Continuing to support accreditation on a larger scale Development of work with primaries Impact analysis National dissemination Campaigning and lobbying Sharing what we have learned “My Language too please”

29. Challenges Are we reaching the right students? Lack of literacy Measuring impact in a meaningful way

30. Summary

31. Any questions or comments?

32. References Cummins, J(2000) Language, Power and Pedagogy. Bilingual Children in the Cross.re. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Li, Wei (2011): Multilinguality, Multimodality, Multicompetence: code and mode switching in minority ethnic children in complementary schools The Modern Language Journal, Vol 95 10/2011 pp. 370-383 Blackledge, A (2001): Literacy, schooling and ideology in a multilingual state, Curriculum Journal, 12:3, 291-312

33. For further information Clare Allison HoLA Project Manager King Edward VII School callison@kes.sheffield.sch.uk Caroline Norman Complementary Schools Manager Languages Sheffield caroline@languages-sheffield.org.uk www.languages-sheffield.org.uk