GCHQ National Language Competition, 7th to 11th November 2022
GCHQ are running a National Language Competition (NLC) to encourage language learning in schools and help boost the uptake of languages at GCSE.
GCHQ’s National Language Competition is aimed at Year 9 students across the UK and involves a variety of fun, immersive, language-themed challenges of varying difficulty levels hosted on a virtual platform. The aim is for students to enjoy using their languages to solve the puzzles, and to be inspired to continue with their language learning at GCSE level. All students will be able to take part, and no prior knowledge is required, only a keenness for languages!
This is the first year they will be running the competition, which is modelled on CyberFirst. Having run a virtual pilot in collaboration with the University of Manchester in the summer of 2021 that was well received, the Schools Outreach team are keen to develop this project on a national scale. It is being advertised to schools nationally, but especially those that are in areas with challenging socioeconomic conditions or that have a high number of heritage speaker pupils.
When? Monday 7th November to Friday 11th November 2022
Who is this aimed at? Year 9s pre-GCSE options
Where? Online from their classrooms (eg at lunchtime under teacher supervision) or at home
Why? Language learning in schools was already on the decline pre-Covid and this has not improved during the pandemic.
GCHQ virtual language resources provided to schools during lockdowns were well received by teachers searching for materials to inspire language learning, and fun activities using languages have gone down particularly well. GCHQ want the NLC to inspire language learning in schools across the UK (with a particular focus on schools in sociodiverse areas in line with GCHQ’s sociomobility agenda) by making languages fun, and encouraging language uptake at GCSE. This is in line with GCHQ’s role as the government’s language authority advisor.
Schools will be able to sign up for the event beforehand and enter teams of up to four Year 9 students to take part. A school will be able to submit as many teams of four as they wish. Teams will then be able to log in to the platform during that week (at lunchtimes under teacher supervision or in their own time in the evening) to have a go at the puzzles on the platform. Students will tackle a range of language-related puzzles, ranging from easy to difficult and from European languages to rarer ones and even made-up languages.
Over a period of five days, they will capture flags to earn points on their language journey which will total up at the end of the week and affect their ranking on a national leaderboard. During the competition itself, teachers will be able to see how their teams are doing via a scoreboard on the platform. The team with the most points at the end of the week wins!
The winning team will be announced shortly after the competition and will be invited to GCHQ’s building in Cheltenham at the beginning of December to be presented with their award.
If you are a teacher and are interested in your school taking part in the competition, please email nlc@gchq.gov.uk to be added to the schools list and ensure that you receive all the information about the competition and instructions on how to sign up.