Eleven Year 9 students were at Newcastle University on Wednesday 13 December. They were taking part in an important event “Beat the Rat Race: Using Languages to Get Ahead.”
They joined 93 other Year 9 students from across the North East, and speakers from a wide range of professions who demonstrated how language skills have benefited them in their careers. This was done in a fun and interactive way. Our students also had the opportunity to learn a completely new language, Polish. With an exciting panel of real life linguists, and language taster sessions, this event seems likely to inspire pupils to take languages forward at GCSE and show them just where it could take them in future.
The panellists all use languages in their jobs – jobs from a wide variety of different fields and organisations in the region and beyond.
A recent report by the British Council found the language learning gap between the North and South of England is widening. The Language Trends Survey 2017 revealed that
in summer 2016, 65 per cent of pupils in inner London took a language GCSE compared with just 43 per cent here in the North East. This event should help to bridge this gap.
The students who took part were: Harry Aynsley, Ellie Burtle, Catherine Chaplin, Sam Clark, Lily McHallum, Katie Miller
Evan Porter, Robbie Redshaw, Christopher Richardson,
Aimee Stenton and Alfie Ward.