Another perspective on language outreach came from Dawn Piper<\/strong>, Curriculum Coordinator for Languages at Littleover Community School and Hub & Network Lead. Working in a large school of around 1,850 students, Dawn highlighted both the challenges and opportunities of promoting languages. Remarkably, the school offers examinations in languages including Polish, Greek and Punjabi<\/strong>, reflecting the linguistic diversity of its students.<\/p>\n For Dawn, Year 8 can be a crucial turning point<\/strong>. Through strong parental engagement, learners can be encouraged to continue with languages and recognise their long-term value. But how can parents be convinced that languages still offer meaningful career opportunities?<\/p>\n One answer is to move away from presenting languages as a career path on their own. Instead, languages can be combined with other interests and subjects. This \u201csomething else\u201d could be science, technology, business, engineering, the arts or many other fields<\/strong>. The message for learners is simple: languages are a superpower<\/strong>. They can open doors, create connections and give young people an additional skill that can set them apart in the workplace.<\/p>\n One particularly inspiring example is the Space Challenge<\/strong>, an interdisciplinary project that combines modern languages with STEM subjects. Students work in teams as if they were space companies, designing projects such as a space hotel, moon base or Mars mission. Crucially, they also have to use a foreign language \u2014 for example German, French or Spanish \u2014 to develop their ideas, communicate with others and pitch their projects. Projects like this demonstrate that languages are not limited to the language classroom. They can become a practical tool for communication, problem-solving, creativity and collaboration<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Dawn’s overall message was one of positivity and collaboration<\/strong>: positivity generates positivity<\/em>. Rather than focusing on the decline of language learning, we should highlight the opportunities and possibilities that languages provide.<\/p>\n This also means building stronger networks between schools, universities, businesses and careers advisers<\/strong>. For example, collaboration with careers advisers could lead to trips to Berlin or other international destinations, giving students the opportunity to experience first-hand how languages are used in education, business and professional life. Ultimately, language outreach is about communication, creativity and connection<\/strong>. If we use the \u201csuperpower\u201d that languages give us, build networks and think creatively about how languages can be combined with other subjects, we can help young people see languages not as an isolated school subject, but as a skill that can take them somewhere.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Outreach: Communication Is Key Another perspective on language outreach came from Dawn Piper, Curriculum Coordinator for Languages at Littleover Community School and Hub & Network Lead. Working in a large school of around 1,850 students, Dawn highlighted both the challenges and opportunities of promoting languages. Remarkably, the school offers examinations in languages including Polish, Greek … Continue reading “Communication is Key”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2393,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[134,131,132,128,118,115,114,119,127,116,59,129,121,133,130],"class_list":["post-381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorised","tag-dawn-piper","tag-interdisciplinary-learning","tag-language-advocacy","tag-language-careers","tag-language-education","tag-language-learning","tag-language-outreach","tag-language-teaching","tag-languages-in-schools","tag-modern-languages","tag-multilingualism","tag-parental-engagement","tag-school-outreach","tag-space-challenge","tag-stem-and-languages"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/germannetworknow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/germannetworknow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/germannetworknow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/germannetworknow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2393"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/germannetworknow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=381"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/germannetworknow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":382,"href":"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/germannetworknow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381\/revisions\/382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/germannetworknow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/germannetworknow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/germannetworknow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Engaging learners \u2014 and their parents<\/h3>\n
Making languages relevant through creativity<\/h2>\n
Building networks and creating opportunities<\/h3>\n