We’re delighted to share that Cheadle Hulme High School (CHHS), founding school of the Laurus Trust, has been selected as one of the first schools in England to become a lead Language Hub in the government’s £15 million languages reboot.

The programme is managed by the National Consortium for Language Education (NCLE) funded by the Department for Education (DfE) and delivered by IOE, UCL’s Faculty of Education and Society (UCL IOE) in partnership with the British Council and the Goethe-Institut.

The aim of the network is to spread best practice in languages teaching to other schools and boost exam entries.

The offer will give students aged 14-18 the opportunity to study German, Spanish and French through to Key Stage 5.

A Languages teacher helps two students with their work at Cheadle Hulme High School, the founding school of the Laurus Trust that has been selected as a lead Language Hub school in England.

Each hub is expected to work with up to seven secondary schools, meaning the scheme will reach a maximum of 175 schools.

CHHS and other Laurus Trust High Schools support and encourage their students to sit their language GCSE in Year 9, allowing every student to acquire a second language qualification before they start their GCSE journey.

Tom Coltman, Director of Languages for the Laurus Trust, said:

“This is great news for everyone involved in Languages at Cheadle Hulme High School and the Laurus Trust. We are very excited to become a Language Hub School and be part of a national programme which will help to share best practice in Language teaching.”

Being able to speak another language brings so many benefits and hopefully this programme will encourage more students to study languages to a higher level. It’s also great to be part of a project that aims to boost German teaching in schools as we highly value German at CHHS.”

Speaking to Schools Week, Government Education Minister Nick Gibb said:

“Young people who are confident in a second language are at a huge advantage in life.”

NCLE research shows the ability to speak other languages is an incredibly useful asset for students and that there are clear educational, personal, cultural, social and career benefits in being able to communicate confidently in another language.

For more information about the Languages Curriculum at CHHS, click here.