Arthur Terry School named among the country’s first 15 Language Hubs

The Arthur Terry School will help support high-quality language education after being appointed by the Government as a Language Hub co-lead school with Stoke’s Painsley Catholic College.

The Department for Education (DfE) has announced the creation of 15 language hubs nationwide as part of a £14.9m scheme aimed at boosting language take-up among students. The Arthur Terry School and the other chosen schools will lead on encouraging more pupils to study languages from primary school through to GCSE over the next three years.

Cathryn Mortimer, Director of the Arthur Terry Teaching School Hub, which is part of the respected Arthur Terry Learning Partnership (ATLP) and delivers teacher and leadership training and development across North Birmingham, said: “We are delighted and honoured that we have been recognised by the Government as a centre of excellence for language education.”

Tracy Williams, the named specialist teacher for the new Language Hub, said: “Becoming a language hub places us in a great position to be able to deliver high-quality language education to even more students in our region and ensure that our children and young people can benefit from all those advantages that learning a second language brings.”

Mrs Williams, who is part of the ATLP’s School Improvement Team and the School-Centred Initial Teacher Training (SCITT) Languages Lead, led the successful joint bid with Painsley Catholic College in Stoke-on-Trent following a rigorous selection process with more than 120 applications. She will be working as the specialist teacher alongside the Modern Foreign Languages (MFL) department at the Arthur Terry School, partnering with other schools across the region.

She added: “I am so proud of our exceptional MFL team, who have a strong reputation for excellent uptake at GCSE and A-level.  We are excited about all the opportunities this programme will bring to our children and young people. Through the high-quality training and development of teachers, we hope to be able to improve language teaching in Spanish, French and German from Key Stage 2 to Key Stage 5.”

Richard Gill CBE, CEO of the ATLP and Chairman of the National Teaching School Hubs Council, said: “This is wonderful news, both for the ATLP and the region. Enormous congratulations to Cathryn and her amazing team, led by the brilliant Tracy Williams.

“As educators and training providers, we face a national teacher recruitment crisis, including a MFL shortage. We hope that this programme will attract more teachers to both the profession and subject.

“If we can provide them with the skills and knowledge to support our students, then we can reach more children and young people, giving them the chance to gain a real love of languages and access to even greater opportunities in the future.”

• Language hubs were part of a commitment made in the Government’s Schools White Paper, published last year, designed to support the Department for Education’s ambition to get 90 per cent of Year 10s studying core academic subjects for the English Baccalaureate by 2025. A further ten schools are set to be selected in a second recruitment round in January. The programme will be managed by the National Consortium for Languages Education (NCLE).

• The Arthur Terry Teaching School Hub, North Birmingham, is one of 11 teaching school hubs in the West Midlands serving schools in North Birmingham. Over the last two years, the Hub has worked collaboratively with a range of organisations across the region to develop and share skills and expertise whilst making a demonstrable and sustainable impact on learning communities. The core purpose of the Arthur Terry Teaching School Hub, North Birmingham, is to deliver teacher and leadership training and development, focusing in particular on the Department for Education’s ‘golden thread’ of ITT, the Early Career Framework and National Professional Qualifications. For further details please visit: https://ttlh.org.uk/ or https://arthurterryteachingschool.atlp.org.uk/

Main Picture: Tracy Williams is the named specialist teacher for the new Language Hub.