Thursday 14 September 2023

Keswick School announced by the DfE as a national Language Hub School

We are proud to announce that Keswick School has been selected as one of only 15 schools across the country to become a lead Language Hub School for the National Consortium for Languages Education (NCLE). Working in conjunction with Ulverston Victoria High School, we will be training a small number of partner schools in Cumbria to share best practice, discuss ideas and support quality language learning activities. At Keswick School, we know that the ability to speak other languages is an incredibly useful asset for pupils, both professionally and personally, and our language students invariably go on to become highly successful in their chosen career paths. 

Simon Jackson, Headteacher, said:
“The importance of learning another language in modern Britain cannot be underestimated. It helps students see themselves as global citizens, understand cultural differences as well as appreciate shared values but, most importantly, it enables a rich discourse between people of different nations. The ability to speak another language is a gift that we should encourage all children to pursue. However, this can only happen with the support of expert teachers. It is for this reason that we are delighted to have been recognised as one of 15 national Language Hubs and we look forward to working with colleagues in partner schools to develop language teaching and encourage more students to take a language to GCSE and beyond.”

Sophia West, Head of French at Keswick School and NCLE Specialist Teacher, said:
“This is an outstanding achievement for our Modern Foreign Languages department and it is an exciting opportunity for us to showcase the high quality of our language teaching, which has now been recognised at a national level. Learning languages opens so many doors for our young people, and we are pleased to be given this additional support to further our vision”.

The NCLE is funded by the Department for Education (DfE) and delivered by IOE, UCL’s Faculty of Education and Society (UCL IOE), in partnership with the British Council and the Goethe-Institut.

The key aims for the NCLE are to:

• encourage high quality language teaching in schools

• increase languages uptake at GCSE

• support levelling up opportunities for disadvantaged pupils

• address the performance of boys

• better recognise and support the rich diversity of languages in addition to English