News Archive 2007
With help from UK Trade & Investment, a rapidly expanding Black Country firm is set to increase its manufacturing capacity threefold as a result of booming export business. The company now exports to more than 90 countries worldwide and eight international languages are spoken fluently within the sales and logistic departments.
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Children at Lillington Primary School were wishing each other "Frohe Weihnachten und alles Gute im Neuen Jahr" this week after capping a year of learning the language with a spot of shopping at a traditional German market.
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Warwick schoolboy Tony Russell has become one of the youngest students to achieve a level two qualification in sign language. Tony passed his level one exam just two years ago and was recently awarded a level two qualification after taking the test in June - to the delight of his tutors.
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Pupils from six Kenilworth schools are joining forces to take part in a national government project that could benefit children across the country. The Specialist Schools and Academics Trust are running the project for four years for the Department for Children, Schools and Family. The intention of the project is to find out if learning foreign languages in primary schools makes a difference on English and Maths standards.
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Students at Prince Henry’s High School learnt some valuable lessons about languages in the workplace recently when they were visited by a French general manager. Michel Recanati, general manager of French company Rousseau, visited the Evesham-based school on 20 November to talk to three groups of students about the importance of language skills in the world of work.
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A school put on a special evening of multilingual entertainment in which the language skills of the audience were firmly put to the test. Pupils at Stourport High School and VI Form Centre, aged 11-18, performed for 200 guests in French, German, Spanish, Russian and Chinese with sixth form students, Melissa Knott and Gareth Pritchard, acting as hosts.
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A new approach to teaching has been set up for adults who want to tackle learning a modern foreign language. French For Fun has been set up as an alternative to evening classes and one-to-one tuition.It offers small group lessons with a maximum of up to 10 people in each class. Founder Jessica Bonnard holds classes at the Brampton, in Newcastle-under-Lyme, or she can travel to the workplace to offer lunchtime lessons instead.
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Students at a Wombourne school are learning how many different languages are spoken in their area. Year nine pupils from Ounsdale High School have asked residents to contact them if they can translate the phrase ‘I love you’ into another language as part of a special project.
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If you have a passion for France or the French and are between 16 and 25 then why not enter the Franco-British Council's short story competition? The story must be inspired by France or the French and be no more than 1000 words. The competition is aimed at encouraging more students to learn French. Amongst the prizes are £100, a return trip to France and having your story published in the FBC magazine and Prospect.
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A Police officer has been recognised for his efforts to integrate the Polish community in Crewe, with a national award. Sergeant Brian Hughes, the Cheshire Police eastern area diversity officer, received the award for Outstanding Commitment to Diversity at the National Justice Awards this week.
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Less than half of Coventry pupils study a modern language at GCSE. The numbers opting to study French, German or Spanish after the age of 14 in city schools have dropped below the 50 per cent mark for the first time.
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Cosmopolitan youngsters at Whitehouse Common Primary School, in Sutton Coldfield, enjoyed a week-long celebration to mark the European Day of Languages. The children sang songs in Zulu, chanted the Haka in Maori, read hieroglyphics and learnt how to say 'hello' in 26 different languages.
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Arpan Sharma of The Blue Coat School, in Somerset Road, Edgbaston, has reached the national final of the Junior Language Challenge. The youngster joined more than 2,600 pupils from around the country in learning Polish (Powodzenia) for the first round of the competition.
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East met West recently when a class of Chinese pupils arrived at Higham Lane School in Nuneaton. The Business and Enterprise College welcomed more than twenty 11-year-olds and their teachers from Nanshan School in Shenzen. Younger pupils in the top ability sets at Higham Lane started learning Mandarin at school last year and this visit was the perfect opportunity to develop their language skills.
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To coincide with European Day of Languages on 26 September, Trinity High School hosted a visit from certified business coaches Mary Collin and Andy Gwynn of Action Coach, to encourage students to continue with their language learning. The project is part of the Business Language Champions programme, co-ordinated by the RLN and is designed to reverse the decline in the take up of foreign languages.
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Pupils from Mere Green Combined School and St Edmund Campion Catholic School marked European Day of Languages by dressing in traditional costumes, learning new languages and immersing themselves in a variety of different cultures. The European Day of Languages, held annually on 26 Septmber, is a council of Europe Initiative to celebrate cultural and linguistic diversity.
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John Kyrle High School is celebrating after adding more specialities in foreign languages and vocational learning to its curriculum. The Ross-on-Wye school, which is already a specialist technology college, has been allocated the two extra specialisms as a result of becoming a high performing specialist school.
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CILT is making available thousands of free resource packs to schools, colleges and community groups looking to celebrate the European Day of Languages on 26 September. Packs include posters, phrases and stickers and ideas for activities can be found on the CILT website.
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This year's GCSE figures, released today, do little to comfort those of us seeking to promote young people's competence in languages. With 30,000 fewer entries in French and German this year it is clear we need to do more to improve our young people's ability to communicate with the rest of the world.
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Residents in the Willenhall and Willenhall Wood areas of Coventry are being invited to learn French, as part of the South East Learning Community Scheme.
The free basic French course, which is funded by the Neighbourhood Renewal Fund, will take place at the Haggard Centre in Remembrance Road every Wednesday.
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More than half of holiday-makers from the West Midlands will struggle to even ask for a drink or a meal when abroad this year, a new survey has found.
A total of 61 per cent of people quizzed would struggle with ordering food in the local language and 71 per cent would be unable to ask for directions.
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The Birmingham-China Business Forum was launched at the end of last month, with the aim of enhancing relations between Birmingham and China.
The forum will become the main focal point for fostering and promoting business links between Birmingham and China, to help local companies benefit from China's thriving economy as well as bringing investment to the city.
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Staff at the Money Shop in Sutton Coldfield are being given a crash course in Polish following a rise in the number of customers from Poland visiting the High Street store. To help meet the needs of this growing community, staff will surprise customers with familiar phrases to make their visit more welcoming.
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Plans to encourage schools to teach Chinese alongside traditional languages such as French or German have been welcomed by Birmingham's business community.
Pupils will be taught Mandarin Chinese because it is "an international language of commerce and industry", according to the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority.
Last night business leaders said the change was long overdue.
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HEREFORD Sixth Form students got a taste of undergraduate life when they attended lectures and seminars at one of the country's most prestigious universities. The A Level Spanish group took part in the University of Bristol's modern languages summer school, where they joined other teenagers in a wide range of discussion sessions and introductory lessons to new languages.
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Comenius West Midlands are holding a European Day of Languages competition in which school pupils and students can enter poems, videos, posters and songs to show how languages will make them global citizens. Winners of each of the four age-group categories will receive book tokens and gain media coverage.
The deadline for entries is 11 September 2007.
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A 72-year-old woman with a profoundly deaf son has learnt sign language forthe first time.
Until now, Grandmother Olive Wynter-Philp, from Walsall, in the Black Country, had communicated with her son Shaun by lip-reading.
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President Putin has designated 2007 as ‘Russian Language Year’. This is a great idea but it needs more publicity and that is where you come in….
The Scotland-Russia Forum, in association with various other organisations including SCILT (Scottish Centre for Language Teaching and Research), has organised a Russian Poster Competition where entrants of all ages can design a poster to promote the language.
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Businesses in the West Midlands have just over two weeks left to nominate themselves for the region's most prestigious export awards. The 2007 West Midlands international trade awards will celebrate the achievements of firms that have been helped by UK Trade & Investment's flagship Passport scheme (for new or novice exporters) or the Middle Market scheme (for experienced exporters). The deadline for entries is Monday 2 April.
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Modern foreign language lessons are to be compulsory for the first time in England's primary schools. A review by Lord Dearing, issued today, recommends that all children should learn a language from the age of seven. This should happen by 2010 as part of the next curriculum overhaul.
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Dean Attwell, MD of Redditch-based storage and logistics company, Oakland International Ltd, is going back to the classroom to encourage pupils to broaden their job horizons by increasing their language skills. Dean is supporting St Augustine’s Catholic High School in Redditch by helping pupils to see the benefits of languages in a business setting. The project is part of the Business Language Champions programme, which is co-ordinated by Regional Language Network West Midlands (RLN WM). It is designed to bridge the gap between school and the workplace and to reverse the recent decline in the take up of modern foreign languages.
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Polish is now the most spoken language after English in West Midlands businesses, according to new research. The study carried out by the RLN found that more than twice as many organisations in the region employ Polish speakers, compared with any other foreign mother tongue. At companies where English is not the first language for all staff, 35 per cent employ Polish speakers. This compares to 16 per cent of companies with French-speaking employees or speakers of Asian languages, and 11 per cent with Spanish speakers.
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The RLN, together with Coventry University, recently conducted research into the extent and nature of demand for foreign languages and cultural awareness amongst West Midlands businesses. The findings of the study will, no doubt, set a few alarms bells ringing, not least due to the fact that the majority of organisations surveyed take a complacent attitude towards the use of foreign language skills and even more so towards the importance of cross-cultural sensitivity in their business.
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The search is on for the best exporters to be rewarded at the 2007 West Midlands international trade awards. The event will celebrate the achievements of firms that have been helped by UK Trade & Investment's flagship Passport scheme, for new or novice exporters, or the Middle Market scheme, for experienced exporters. The deadline for entries is 2 April 2007, so if you think your company's export successes deserve recognition get entering now!
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