Originally funded by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation, the Home Language Accreditation Project (HoLA) in Sheffield aims to assist bilingual children gain qualifications in their home language. The project hopes to develop relationships between community language schools and mainstream schools, who will then collaborate with Sheffield Council and the Children’s University, pooling their efforts and resources to provide national accreditation for Sheffield’s bilingual children.
The project is supported and run by King Edward VII School, Sheffield.
An important element of the project allows the learning hours of their ‘mother tongue’ to be recognised and rewarded with certificates and ceremonies, to allow for the child to feel that their native language is important.
HoLA was the winner of the Mary Glasgow Language Trust Award, and the project was praised for the various establishments’ collaboration and the sharing of information “for the benefit of students with a home language”.
Project Manager Clare Allison was pleased with the award, expressing her delight at the recognition of “this pioneering project” which has helped so many Sheffield children “to achieve such positive outcomes”.
The focus since funding ceased after the maximum of 6 years has been to support the accreditation of GCSE and A Level home languages across the Sheffield City Region.