London Centre for Languages and Cultures Launched in Hammersmith

The London Centre for Languages and Cultures was officially launched on Thursday 21 November 2013 at William Morris Sixth Form in Hammersmith. A partnership between William Morris Sixth Form, Pembroke College Oxford, and The Open University, the project is supported by the London Schools Excellence Fund, in conjunction with the Mayor of London and the Department for Education. It aims to enhance the subject knowledge of teachers and students of nine different modern foreign languages in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, and the City of Westminster.

The Centre’s activities, beginning in January 2014, will include the provision of a network of subject resources for teachers, language study days, twilight seminars and a three-day residential summer school for students and teachers, to be held at Pembroke College Oxford at the end of the academic year. Cultural events and supporting lectures will promote languages and more generally intercultural awareness. As part of a widening participation programme, the Centre is intended to encourage and promote the study of languages which are traditionally less popular choices for university applicants from disadvantaged backgrounds. The Centre’s activities encompass nine languages: Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Persian, Portuguese, and Spanish, plus Applied Linguistics.

Over 120 people attended the launch event, the majority of the audience comprising students and teachers of modern foreign languages from William Morris Sixth Form and other schools in the tri-borough. As part of the launch event, individual language-specific sessions were held for students and teachers, led by students from the University of Oxford and staff from The Open University, in each of the nine languages supported by the Centre. Later a keynote speech was delivered at the launch by Professor Julia Bray, the Laudian Professor of Arabic at the University of Oxford. Dr Tim Farrant, Fellow in French at Pembroke, and Dr Peter Claus, Access Fellow at Pembroke, also addressed the audience, along with Aswathy Mohanaprakas, currently a Portuguese and Linguistics student and St Peter’s College Oxford, and formerly a participant in Pembroke’s access programme as a sixth form student in East London.

Dr Claus said, “Pembroke is delighted to be involved in this exciting new initiative and we look forward to developing close links with teachers and students in the west London area in the coming years.  Language learning is an invaluable part of any student’s education and we are pleased to be working alongside William Morris Sixth Form and The Open University in encouraging a focus on best practice in this discipline.”

The London Centre for Languages and Cultures is the fourth subject centre to be established by Pembroke. It follows the successful model of the East End Classics Centre at BSix Sixth Form College in Hackney, opened in 2012, the North West Science Centre (with Corpus Christi College, Oxford) at South Cheshire College in Crewe, launched in September 2013, and the Theology and Religious Studies Centre at Aston Sixth Form in Ashton-under-Lyne, launched earlier in November 2013. The subject centres form part of Pembroke’s ongoing access and outreach activities in London and the North West. These are based on an intensive academic approach which aims to prepare students for learning in competitive universities and to encourage independent study beyond the curriculum through small-scale, long-term, subject-led engagement.