Languages For All- Launch Event
On Friday 18th of October 2024, Languages For All had their launch event in their partnered university Royal Holloway in Egham.
14 schools within the London borough of Hounslow, schools such as The Heathland School and Logic Studio School are signed as part of this program that will run through the A-level course of 2 years.
Within these 2 years the students will be provided with trips every half term to prestigious companies such as BBC, Google, the BFI, a residential trip to the country of the language that is being studied at the end of this academic year and many more enrichment opportunities to enhance speaking skills and to be able to encounter languages used in daily life and exploring the culture along with additional exam support and results day aid.
Languages For All is a non-profit project which is focused on escalating the number of teenagers within state schools that study languages at GCSE level, A-level and eventually degree level too.
This is run by Michael Slavinsky who says he does this because “I love the innovation that's possible when schools and universities collaborate together- we all want the same thing for young people in our society: the ability to live lives of choice and opportunity”
Languages are important as they open minds and open doors and create opportunities for you that would otherwise never exist like staying inter-connected in this globalised planet.
However, many state schools cannot afford to run a language class at A-level and the priority is on other subjects therefore Languages For All not only promotes the benefits of languages through enrichment and trips but also provides A-level classes for those who are passionate.
The French class runs in Chiswick school and the Spanish class in Reach Academy.
On the day, we had a tour of the beautiful campus of the University, along with lunch provided.
We had a seminar with Michael on different countries and how they are run due to cultural differences.
We also had a fantastic lecture with the university principal- Professor Julie Sanders.
Throughout the day, the focus was primarily getting all the students to get to know each other and ultimately make friends by encouraging students to remove themselves from their comfort zones.
The focus of the day was leadership and how we can promote languages towards the younger years, I decided to take it a step further and through this article would like to promote languages nationally.
In 2022, only 50 students in the schools partnered with LFA chose to do languages at A- level and this number has now doubled to 93 students.
In 2022, of those 50, only 2 went on to pursue languages at university and the number is predicted to increase based on the feedback at the end of the trip which exclaimed that 83% of students are likely to do so.
24 of those 93 students are studying languages outside of their schools in the classes that LFA provides.
This clearly highlights that languages are something students are passionate about, and this program does indeed work even if many students are not given the proper understanding of the increasing benefits of languages in the future as it provides you with cultural understanding too, which is a key leadership skill creating understanding and sympathy with a variety of different people. Micheal exclaims that “For the country, languages are important because otherwise we only understand what the rest of the world wants us to understand.”
