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Comenius FAQs
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Comenius Network – a regional framework to support the National Language Strategy
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Why does the National Language Strategy need a regional support structure?
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How is this different from what the Comenius Network has done in the past?
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Is the Comenius Network related to the European Union’s Comenius programme?
Use the map to find out what is available in your region.
Comenius Network – a regional framework to support the National Language Strategy
The DfES has approved an ambitious three-year plan to strengthen regional support for implementing the National Languages Strategy. This is based on the Comenius network of partner institutions who have been working with CILT on a voluntary basis for the past ten to twelve years. Centres receive government funding to support their activities and are expected to play a strategic role in developing languages in their regions across all phases of education. The network has been restructured to reflect the nine government regions and will build on existing partnerships as well as creating new alliances to bring teachers in all areas of the country into contact with training and support. The new Centres work closely with the Regional Language Networks who will continue to focus on promoting language skills for business and employment purposes.
Why a National Language Strategy?
Languages for All: Languages for Life – A Strategy for England is the Government’s strategy for improving the country’s capability in languages. In the global society of the 21st century, language competence and cultural understanding are increasingly important. The Strategy aims to address our society’s attitudes towards language skills and increase the value people attach to learning and teaching languages. We must provide high quality teaching and learning opportunities to equip young people with the skills they need to access opportunities in the world of travel and work. Language skills are central to breaking down barriers both within this country and beyond. The Strategy contains three overarching objectives:
- To improve the teaching and learning of languages, including delivering an entitlement to language learning for all pupils at Key Stage 2 and ensuring that opportunity to learn languages has a key place in the transformed secondary school of the future;
- To introduce a new voluntary recognition scheme, The Languages Ladder, to complement existing qualification frameworks and give people credit for their language skills; and'
- To increase the number of people studying languages in further and higher education and in work based training by stimulating demand for language learning and encouraging employers to play their part in supporting language learning
Why does the National Language Strategy need a regional support structure?
Headteachers and local education authorities will be in the frontline of delivering the National Language Strategy but they will need support. The Comenius network will provide a regional level of support bringing the key players with responsibility for providing services to the education sector across a region together to maximise their impact, encourage the sharing of ideas and resources and channel support from the National Centre for Languages.
What does the Comenius Network do?
In order to support the implementation of the National Languages Strategy, the Comenius Network:
- mobilises key educational partners and stakeholders
- develops local training opportunities for teachers in all phases of education through networking and partnership
- brings teachers into contact with training and support
- raises awareness about the nature of the proposed KS2 entitlement for languages and how it can be delivered within the primary curriculum
- generates enthusiasm for language learning amongst key stakeholders
- supports languages in the 14-19 curriculum and facilitate innovation and good practice in relation to skills and workforce development
- provides a professional home for all those involved in language teaching and learning
In practice this is includes activities such as:
- Collecting and gathering local information
- Capacity audit and needs analysis
- Awareness-raising and mobilisation of key players
- Promoting cohesion for regional decision-makers
- Informed decision-making targeting local need
- Increase in support and impact
- Systematic links with the business and employment sectors through formal liaison with the Regional Language Networks
- Direct input to LSC and RDA development through RLN-Comenius collaboration
Each region has its own webpages which will set out in more detail what resources it has and what its annual work programme is.
How is this different from what the Comenius Network has done in the past?
What will change for the Comenius Network is that it will be directly linked to the National Languages Strategy, it will be structured along English regional lines and it will be engaged on a wider range of activities than before because of its strategic and consultative role.
Each region has one or more Comenius partners. One of them takes
the lead in coordinating activities and delivery is shared between
all partners. The 
partners
consult regional stakeholders such as local education authorities,
Learning and Skills Councils, higher and further education institutions,
specialist language schools, advanced skills teachers and others
on what should be the priorities for action in that region. Their
annual activity and budget are agreed between them and the National
Centre for Languages and monitored by the Comenius Network Manager,
Peter Barron. The
National Centre in turn reports back to the Department for Education
and Skills.
How do I contact the Comenius Network?
The network for each of the English regions can be located using
our interactive map. 
What is the Regional Language Network (RLN)?
The Regional Language Network (RLN) is a parallel regional structure
managed by the National Centre for Languages which promotes languages
in the workplace. For information, visit their website.
Why is it called the Comenius Network?
The
Comenius Network is named after Jan Amos Komensky (Latinised to
Comenius) born on 28 March 1592, in Moravia, now part of the Czech
Republic. He is considered appropriate for the values for which
he stood: internationalism, the importance of high quality education
for all, languages and practical experience underpinning learning,
innovation, and intercultural understanding. These will remain at
the heart of the Comenius network as it moves into its new phase.
He was educated at Heidelberg University in Germany, and subsequently became a clergyman. In 1628 Comenius settled in Leszno, Poland, where he wrote his first books calling for the reform of the education system: The Great Didactic, The School of Infancy, and The Gate to Languages Unlocked. These books earned him a reputation in other countries and he was invited first to England, and then to Sweden and Hungary to reform school systems. Comenius is best known for his contributions to teaching techniques. Persuaded that education is not limited to the action of school and family but is part of general social life, he believed that teachers should understand how a child’s mind develops and learns. He was convinced that all children, without regard to gender or social class, should attend school and receive the same education so as to understand and accept the civilization in which they live. Comenius was among the first to teach classical languages by use of parallel passages of ancient and modern texts; and his Visible World in Pictures (1658) is believed to be the first illustrated textbook for children.
To use the words of Jean Piaget, "Comenius was the first to
conceive the full-scale science of education". His educational
objective can be summed up in the phrase on the title page of The
Great Didactic, "teaching thoroughly all things to all
men". He is also considered to be the first educator to have
put forward the concept of international education. His ideas on
education for everyone and for all peoples, and on the international
organisation of public education make him a forerunner of many modern
institutions and trends of thought. Comenius’ efforts on behalf
of universal education earned him the title of "Teacher of
Nations".
(Text
from the UNESCO website)
Is the Comenius Network related to the European Union’s Comenius programme?
There is no relationship whatsoever between the two programmes but the EU’s Comenius Programme is related to school partnerships, European in-service training and European networks of Comenius organisations. For more details look at the European Commission’s or the British Council’s pages.
