§ Lord Williams of Elvelasked Her Majesty's Government:
What their position is on a proposed pilot project for teaching foreign languages in primary and secondary schools in England which is at present under discussion by head teachers and local education authorities. [HL282]
§ Baroness Ashton of UphollandWe have been discussing with our key European partners of France, Germany and Spain opportunities for enhancing language learning in primary and secondary schools. The department hosted a seminar on 13 July for head teachers and key language partners to discuss the practicalities and potential of a proposal presented by the German Ambassador.
The proposal will complement our plans to widen opportunities for primary language learning, to build on existing links between primary schools and specialist language colleges and to look at the feasibility of bilingual language teaching. We are already supporting an early language learning project and a feasibility study of bilingual teaching will start later this year. Following the seminar, we will be examining targeted bids for support to develop a small number of locally driven pilot projects.