About the Coventry Language Schools Network
Excluding London, Coventry is the 46th most populated local authority in England yet the 7th most linguistically diverse: at least 17.5% of Coventry’s residents use one of over 86 languages other than English (LOTEs) as their “main language” (Census 2021). Maintaining/reviving the use of a first/heritage language is important for cultural identity, child well-being, community cohesion, social inclusion and economic growth.
Supplementary language schools (which are community-led and operate part-time) play a critical role in ethnic minority communities successfully using their first/heritage language, but there is no national community/minority language education policy, and like supplementary schools elsewhere, Coventry’s language schools face many challenges (e.g. lack of funding, temporary premises). Despite the U.K. City of Culture 2021 award celebrating Coventry’s cultural diversity, support for Coventry’s linguistic diversity is minimal and supplementary schools’ visibility is low.
The Coventry Language Schools Network was established in 2024 and aims to improve the visibility of, enrolment in, and support for community language education in Coventry so that supplementary language schools can better support language use in this diverse city.
In May 2024, we held our first meeting at the University of Warwick; this workshop aimed to facilitate knowledge-exchange and networking between the project lead, Coventry’s supplementary school teachers, and other local stakeholders. During this workshop, we began co-production of this website and of a policy briefing, and we established a Facebook group for news and discussion. The Network aims to continue promoting knowledge-exchange and facilitating the exchange of language education support and language services support in Coventry.
Project Lead
Dr Ellen Smith-Dennis, Applied Linguistics, University of Warwick
Project Partners
- Bosnian Supplementary School
- Coventry Ethnic Minority Achievement Service
- Iqra Learning Centre (Arabic, Urdu)
- Nanaksar Gurdwara Gursikh Temple Panjabi community language school
- Ramgarhia Gudwara Panjabi school
- Shree Krishna Temple Gujarati School
- Vista (formerly Beautiful Blooms) Persian School