At the heart of Stoke Newington School and Sixth Form, our students enrich the SNS community with their cultures, values, religions, and linguistic diversity.

We currently accommodate students speaking over 50 languages with their friends, families, and beyond. As a consequence, multi-diverse inclusiveness is something that we always acknowledge and are extremely proud of.

In collaboration with students and staff we have recently engaged in the following multicontinental initiatives across the school:
  • Marking the European Day of Languages with exciting activities taking place over the week
  • Monthly celebration of the language of the month
  • Appointing Language Ambassadors to promote languages and support peers who are new to the country
  • Lunchtime Language Club - using Linguascope - an interactive language platform with many languages on offer; researching and preparing posters for the language of the month
  • Cuisine from around the world - fantastic efforts from Bluebird Cafe Team and Olive dining
  • Regular festivals celebrating cultural diversity - a collaboration with RE faculty
  • ESOL classes for parents and Hackney community-run weekly in collaboration with Hackney Adult Learning (contact: Ms Vaghela - dipa.vaghela@hackney.gov.uk)
We have two brilliant teams dedicated to helping our students and their families with English as an additional language have positive and communicative relationships with the school.

What our CEAL (Communities with English as an additional language) team does:

  • We help pupils with English as an additional language with their lessons and with their homework
  • Please contact our department if you would like to get involved: 020 7241 9631

What our Community Languages team does:

We offer GCSE and A-Level examination entries (exam only) in community languages for Years 9-13.

Studying and undertaking formal examinations in community languages is important to enhance international relations whether occupationally or as an individual.

Additional language skills can be transferred to many fields such as healthcare, police forces, diplomacy, paralegal or sports.

Community languages currently on offer by the AQA and Edexcel exam boards:

ARABIC

FRENCH

GERMAN

GREEK

GUJARATI

ITALIAN

BIBLICAL HEBREW

JAPANESE

PERSIAN

PORTUGUESE

RUSSIAN

SPANISH

CHINESE (MANDARIN)

TURKISH

URDU

POLISH

PANJABI

General guidance in undertaking exams

  • Ability to speak, listen, read and write using all tenses confidently by the end of study period
  • Commitment to study independently
  • The school will support with the provision of the past papers, vocabulary and grammar list and will advise of the relevant specification. It will also communicate with students and parents/careers on regular basis.
  • Parents will provide a language speaker for the exam (non-relative) and support their children through studies.
  • A-level students must be familiar with the exam specification as it significantly differs from the GCSE exam.

Useful links to exam boards

Contact us

Lead on Community Languages

Ms Komisarek El-Mahmoud

community.languages@sns.hackney.sch.uk