New initiative between state and independent schools to train language teachers

A new initiative between state and independent schools and the government has been announced, which aims to train a ‘new generation’ of ‘expert’ language teachers.

The announcement was made by Mike Buchanan, chair of the Headmasters and Headmistresses Conference (HMC), who said that the collaboration would ‘help arrest further decline in modern foreign languages’.

There has been a steady decline in the number of students choosing to study languages over the last two decades, which has in turn led to issues in recruiting and training enough high quality teachers in the subject.

Despite generous bursaries of £25,000 to train as a language teacher, schools across the UK are still struggling to recruit, which Buchanan warns is ‘likely to put UK pupils at a major disadvantage in a global marketplace’.

The new initiative will be led by Silverdale School in Sheffield, and the plan is to find schools of all types that are willing to train language teachers. While the details are still being worked out, Buchanan suggested that 25 independent schools have already expressed an interest in being involved, which could go some way to improving the teaching of languages in schools across the country.