Like so many things this year, the work which we do to share the joys of Modern Languages with school students and their teachers has had to evolve to suit the needs of the Covid era. We’ve been as busy as ever running events and activities aimed at pre-university learners, and in many ways the move to online provision has provided us with fresh opportunities to rethink what we do, enabling us to reach larger numbers of people more easily. We may not be able to travel the length and breadth of the country visiting schools in person, or to host pupils and their teachers for live events here in Oxford, but we are still conducting virtual school ‘visits’, and this year all of our open days will take place via Microsoft Teams, with a mix of live sessions and pre-recorded videos.
Earlier this term we hosted our annual literary masterclass for sixth form students. Ordinarily this is a day-long event which takes place in Oxford; this year we ran no fewer than twelve simultaneous sessions via Teams, each of them focusing on a different set text from the A level Spanish, German and French curricula. Over eighty pupils from nine different schools were able to attend. Thanks to our willing and enthusiastic team of undergraduate ambassadors, many of our online events like these also provide attendees with the opportunity to talk to current students about their own experiences of studying languages with us.
In September 2020, our annual Sir Robert Taylor Society conference for schoolteachers moved online too – the virtual format meant that many teachers from locations which are geographically distant from Oxford were able to join us for the first time.
Meanwhile we are still running our ever-popular Flash Fiction competitions for French and Spanish learners aged between 11 and 18. We’ve also been creating resources which we hope will continue to be useful into the future. Our outreach YouTube channel, for example, has a growing collection of videos about aspects of studying languages at Oxford, from the application process to course content, as well as a series of enrichment resources supporting those who are studying literary texts for A level. Colleagues from the Oxford German Network, Queen’s College Translation Exchange, Modern Languages Outreach and Engagement and Creative Multilingualism projects have also continued to deliver a whole range of events and activities – competitions, reading groups, creative workshops, and more – designed to enthuse and inspire language learners.
This academic year the Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages is participating for the first time in Opportunity Oxford, a bridging scheme which is designed to support talented applicants from disadvantaged backgrounds, in order to prepare them for life as Oxford undergraduates. Candidates offered places under the scheme will participate in a two-part summer school before coming up to Oxford: in the first part they will be taught alongside students from other subject areas to build on their core academic skills, and later in the summer they will also undertake a language-specific course to support them as they begin their studies within the Faculty. We’re very much looking forward to welcoming the first cohort.
To find out more about our outreach activities you can subscribe to our blog, Adventures on the Bookshelf, or follow us on Twitter @OxMML_Schools.
