VIEWS & OPINION


Foreign languages benefit us all Comment by DR DAVID HORNSBY, Senior Lecturer in French and Head of English Language


and Linguistics at the University of Kent


The widely reported decline in modern languages in UK schools elicits responses from the defeatist (‘Brits can’t do languages’) to the isolationist (‘They all speak English anyway’), and finally protectionist calls to reinstate compulsory language instruction to GCSE. To a language professional like myself, such special pleading can sound tempting. But rather than force people to persist with something they dislike, we should make a bold, positive case for our subject. Sadly, that case often goes unheard, because legitimate fears for the future have forced us into a defensive, instrumentalist crouch. Instrumentalist arguments point to the cost (in billions) to business of British monolingualism, or stress the need for translators, interpreters, or UK representation in international fora. While any of these is a good reason for learning a language, arguments of the ‘Languages-are-necessary-for-X’ type may well not resonate with students, whose own motivations may be quite different (e.g. ‘I’d like to impress that cute foreign barista in Starbucks’). Rather than telling people that languages are good for them, we should make language learning the adventure I’ve always found it to be. This means a more intensive introduction in primary school, and a playful, creative approach to teaching, rather than one which starts from a set of phrasebook- style ‘useful’ expressions, or the view that students’ needs are best served by learning how to say ‘Our turnover has increased by 23.4%’. An over- emphasis on written at the expense of oral skills – which causes major problems for my own undergraduates in French – should also be challenged.


Mistakes will certainly happen along the way, and there’s no denying there are difficult bits (German subjunctives, anyone?), but if their interest is caught early enough, students can often spot patterns for themselves. Where they can’t, excellent apps like Duolingo can help.


We can’t expect multilingual fluency from everyone, but the rewards for linguistically aware societies and individuals are nonetheless huge. Start with the deeper awareness which flows from the discovery that others don’t see the world in the same way: Russian has two words for ‘blue’, French has no word for ‘shallow’, and German has, in Schadenfreude, a name for that deliciously guilty feeling we’ve all had, but just can’t put into words. Languages make you respect a different set of rules, giving you the flexibility to collaborate imaginatively. Even a few words uttered in an interlocutor’s mother tongue will signal your willingness to see things differently and learn from others, which is the wellspring of economic growth. The challenge of expressing yourself with words, sounds, and grammatical rules which might at first seem unnatural will also make you a better problem solver. In or out of the EU, Britain will not necessarily need armies of translators, or people who can write business plans in French, Italian and German (though a few more certainly wouldn’t hurt). What we will need are people who are flexible, open, tolerant, co-operative, innovative and able to find creative solutions to problems. I know of no better training for all these qualities than learning a modern foreign language.


Thinking big about leadership development


Comment by TARUN KAPUR CBE, chair of Outstanding Leaders Partnership and chief executive and academy principal at The Dean Trust, a MAT currently clustered in three hubs: east (Manchester), central (Trafford) and West (Knowsley and Wigan)


I recognised plenty of fellow baby boomers when I spoke at a recent event to celebrate Outstanding Leaders Partnership - a national partnership of schools, teaching school alliances and multi-academy trusts set up to deliver leadership training programmes. I was sure that many of the 50s and early 60s children who made up a good proportion of the audience of teaching school leads, headteachers and MAT CEOs were, like me, still relishing their responsibilities.


But I also knew that they and everyone else in the audience shared my concern about ensuring that we develop enough new school leaders for the future.


It’s been a concern for schools for some time and it is one of the reasons why Outstanding Leaders Partnership(OLP) was formed in the north west in 2012 and why we decided to ramp up our activities this year and build a national presence.


I firmly believe schools can grow and retain leaders by organising their leadership development efforts on an altogether grander scale. OLP now includes 47 teaching school alliances and multi-academy trusts – comprising over 1,000 schools. This partnership will run leadership development programmes from Manchester to Exeter and we believe that we are now the biggest school-led school leadership development provider of its kind in the country.


We’re proud of what we’ve achieved so far. Over 1,800 schools have now used OLP for leadership training programmes such as NPQH, with


July/August 2017


well over half of the leaders on that programme immediately securing headships - but our focus remains on the leadership challenge schools face across the country.


The size of that challenge - a recent report predicted that England could face a shortfall of up to 19,000 school leaders by 2022 - is such that it needs an organised, scaled up response.


Our decision to expand OLP – welcoming teaching school alliances and MATs from around the country into our partnership - is our contribution to tackling those challenges.


If we are to ensure that enough people become heads and senior school leaders – and keep them in the profession - then we need to give them the very highest quality, relevant training and support they need. There are many individual teaching schools and trusts providing leadership development today but we believe that there are disadvantages to that approach: the logistics of delivering professional development can, even on a small scale, stretch the limited back office resources of schools and it can be costly.


From the start we partnered with a national training organisation – Best Practice Network – to look after areas such as course development, candidate recruitment, organising training sessions, quality assurance and training our experienced school leaders to deliver our programmes. It’s an approach that we think is unique and which gives us a solid foundation for our continuing expansion - and our mission to develop the leaders of the future.


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