FROM Cantonese to Italian, Russian to Polish, Bemrose School are bucking the trend for languages learned by young people.
This year, the multi-cultural Derby school – in Uttoxeter Road – will have 21 students sitting eight different GCSE examinations. Languages they are currently studying include Arabic, Cantonese, Greek, Italian, Persian, Polish, Russin and Urdu; Bemrose also have two A-Level students studying Italian and Cantonese.
The school offers French and Spanish at GCSE but many of the pupils at Bemrose have opted to study a ‘community language’.
According to the British Council 30,000 students take a qualification in their ‘community’ language every year. The majority of students entering community language exams through a mainstream school do not study the subject in there, but in a community-led supplementary school setting.
However, The Bemrose School are supporting their pupils by conducting lessons in a tutorial style, whereby the students learn in class and continue their research outside of formal lesson time.
Finding adequate examiners to mark tests for these subjects, has relied on external contributions and they are provided in the form of ex-pupils, members of the community – and even the Imam from the local mosque.
Joseph Bull, Learning Director of Languages, said: “Community languages are very student led, and they give the students a chance to learn more around the subject. These lessons encompass more than the language itself by involving the cultural aspects.
“Studying a community language is all about exploring more around the culture, politics, and wider context of a language.
“Classes are fascinating; we’ll allow students to explore and analyse films and literature and cover some quite mature and serious topics. The students get a really profound understanding of the language they are studying.
“The most difficult thing about languages, though, is finding examiners who can grade the work accurately. We reach out the community around us to help out. That includes using teachers from the school, the local community, and past students to kindly assist with the exam process.”
A-Level students Aimen Sadeedi and Saweera Mirza are studying their home language, Urdu, alongside a second choice. Aimen – who has received an offer from The University of Cambridge to study linguistics in September – has opted to study Cantonese.
She said: “I moved over to the UK from Hong Kong two years ago, so I wanted to continue to keep that connection to Hong Kong by studying Cantonese.”
Saweera, meanwhile, is looking to use her talents in foreign language to improve her career prospects for the future. She is studying Italian, alongside Urdu, and is hoping it makes her stand out from the crowd in job interviews later down the line.
The teenager, who is has offers to study marketing at the University of Derby and also the University of Sheffield, said: “So few people can speak more than one language, so having that skill opens up opportunities for me. Companies like it when they have staff who can communicate with people from other places.”
GCSE students Viktorija Tihomiroua, Zainab Naseer and Musffa Shafia are all studying hard for their forthcoming exams. Musffa said: “I chose to study languages because I would like to be an interpreter when I am older. That’s the hard bit about languages, being able to interpret from one language to another.”
Meanwhile Viktorija said: “I just want to be able to talk to people from all around the world. It’s good to be able to communicate.”
Only 38% of Britons speak a second language, and fewer speak more. Statista shared that 18% of people in the UK speak two foreign languages and 6% speak three or more.
Back in October 2021, then-Minister for School Standards Robin Walker MP said that “the teaching of foreign languages in schools should be more reflective of “modern Britain”, with greater numbers of pupils learning languages such as Arabic and Polish.”
Executive headteacher Neil Wilkinson said: “Languages are a part of the cultural richness of The Bemrose School and the world in which our pupils will go on to live and work.
“To broaden our pupils’ understanding of the world around them, they will learn to appreciate different countries and cultures as we incorporate festivals, traditions and places of interest into our teaching.
“Learning languages contributes to mutual understanding and a sense of global citizenship necessary for an outward looking person in this changing world.
“Our talented languages team at The Bemrose School provide a rich experience of learning in either Spanish or French, as well as in a range of community languages as mentioned previously.
“We integrate phonics, vocabulary recall skills and teaching of grammar with new technology to engage our pupils as we make learning a new language relevant and interactive.
“We aim to build on the existing linguistic skills of our bilingual pupils, too, while helping all the pupils to learn a new language.”
ENDS
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