Reaching the Hard to Reach: Collaborative Models in the East Midlands (Nottingham, NTU, Leicester and Lincoln)

Mary Brittain, Mirella Santamaría, Jodeine Wheatcroft, Neil Hughes

WIDENING PARTICIPATION

Reaching the Hard to Reach

• National context: Routes and HEFCE• Widening participation: focus on

social disadvantage• East Midlands context• Need for:

• collaboration• targeting (IMD, POLAR2, FSM) • evidence of impact

PROJECTS/COLLABORATION

Projects/activitiesStudent ambassador schemes:

University of NottinghamNottingham Trent UniversityUniversity of Lincoln

E-mentoring:University of Leicester

Bespoke Programme:Nottingham Trent University

Easter and summer courses

Projects/activitiesOne-off events

• European Day of Languages• Olympics themed events• Languages and Film sessions• Competitions

Resources• Online language learning resources• Guide to learning languages in the East Midlands

23,000 pupils from 520 schools across the East Midlands benefitted from our projects

East Midlands Business Language ChampionsLanguages and You Presentation:

• Employability• Intercultural understanding• Puts into context the usefulness and importance

of languages• Helps inform option choices

200 presentations to 16,000 pupilsacross the region

Bringing Languages and Business Together

BESPOKE PROGRAMME

The Bespoke Programme - Rationale

• Enabling pupils to see languages ‘beyond the walls

of the classroom’

• Raising aspirations & broadening horizons for a

cohort of WP pupils

• Aiming for the highest impact intensive, multiple,

sequential interventions

The Bespoke Programme – Example Content

International student panel

Presentation skills in

action, with props!

Trip to the French

embassy in London

Taster sessions in

other languages

French enrichment

Building relationships with

students and speakers of other

languages

Self defence in French with ‘Mad

Max’

End of programme presentation day

at school

Exploring life on campus

Self-defence with ‘Mad Max’

The Bespoke Programme – Factors for Success

• Commitment from school

• Diverse & creative activities

• Energy & enthusiasm

• 4-5 sequential interventions linked to Key Stage 3+4

• Building relationships & trust with pupils

• The Embassy!

• Collaboration

The Bespoke Programme – The Impact

2009 = 6 pupils taking GCSE French at Parkside School with the languages department in danger of closing

Bespoke Language Programme

2012 = 30 pupils taking GCSE French, thriving languages community within school

The Bespoke Programme – The Impact

“ It has been the most amazing project, not only in respect to the results – Parkside going from their French option in danger of disappearing from the curriculum to a now healthy class size, plus discussions to add Spanish to the provision – but also in the example of how collaboration can work.

The way in which your team have worked with us has proven that when people are dedicated and committed, real success can be achieved.  The programme has been exciting, innovative and challenging. Personally, this collaboration will be the standard by which I think collaboration should be measured.”

Rachael Nicholls, Aimhigher Derbyshire 

The Bespoke Programme:

LEARNING RESOURCES

Resources

• Web-based resources• Ambassadors Learn Languages• Log-onto-languages