"David Binns has made a remarkable contribution to language education at Ysgol Friars through his highly engaging and thought-provoking talks to Year 9 pupils over the past two years.

His ability to re-frame the case for studying a language at GCSE, moving beyond the traditional focus on linguistic fluency to highlight the transferable skills, intercultural awareness, and genuine employability benefits that employers actively seek, has clearly resonated with students.The impact on pupil attitude has been encouraging: previously hesitant learners have left his sessions with a far more positive outlook on languages, and a growing number have gone on to opt for a language at Key Stage 4. At a time when post-Covid uptake remains a challenge across the sector, an increase in numbers over two years is a genuinely meaningful result, and one that David's intervention has directly influenced.

His talk to Year 10 two years ago has been equally impressive, with A level language numbers doubling thanks to his ability to inspire and motivate young people at a critical decision-making point in their education."

Stephanie Ellis-Williams - Head of International Language Faculty

Good Evening, David,

We met last year on your visit to Bolton Girls School and your fame preceded you, having seen your talk to the year 12 German students at Manchester Grammar prior to that. Judith, with whom you had contact previously, is retiring in July and I shall be adding my original post of i/c French to my current post of i/c German and Head of Faculty. In our constant battle to get our girls to see the value of languages, one of our undoubted success stories has been our year 9 MFL Day and the girls were talking for weeks afterwards about your presentation. For that, we are eternally grateful.

We are really keen to repeat the day (and expand it to cover a whole school day) again next academic year and are aiming for another October date. Judith mentioned you were thinking of retiring (I am praying to every God I know of from RE lessons at school that this is just a rumour). Would you be available to inspire and enthuse next year 9 in a similar vein? I hope so and was wondering what dates you might have available in October? We have an idea of activities etc but, as our "keynote speaker", we plan to build the day around your availability. 

Hi David,

Just an update on our options after your talk, a 35% increase this year which is great!

The deputy that was in the talk at St Peter's wants you back next year, so I'll be in touch in September and I am sure that St Patrick's will also want a return visit . 

Thanks again

Laura

@TrinityAcadStE We were very lucky again to secure @David_Sanako

to come in and talk to our Y9s about languages in the workplace this morning. As always, a fantastic session and really beneficial for our Y9 cohort as they look head to KS4!

Although a little bit shy during the talk, as soon as we went to lessons I was bombarded by lots of language related questions, certainly inspired an interest in MFL

Thanks David!

Delivering the keynote speech to over 2,500 students across 26 schools around the UK, mainly year 9 & Year 10, David Binns spoke online to deliver his engaging & informative Modern Languages in the Working World message.

One school @RedhillMFL Department tweeted " Year 10 really enjoyed the webinar this morning on languages in the working world from @david_sanako which really made them think about the benefits of learning a language. Thanks you and also to @EYFOLNE "

The fight to boost the uptake of languages at GCSE level continues across the UK

Thank you so much for your talk - I've had lots of positive feedback from the students and staff who attended. 

Clearly you had an impact as several of the parents I spoke to last night said that their child had come home talking about the talk, and you know how rarely teenagers actually share anything about what they've done in a school day! Also, I had a number of students saying they are going to choose Spanish as they know it will give them a better chance to earn more money so clearly the message sank in. 

We won't know the full impact until the students have chosen their options but I really do sense that some that were on the fence about choosing to a language next year have now made a firm decision based on your talk so that's great news.

I wanted to email to express our deep gratitude to you for delivering such an inspirational and motivational presentation to our year 9 students yesterday. I sadly was not there as I was at a conference, but on my return to the office I was bombarded with positive feedback about how well the talk had landed with our students, and how brilliantly you delivered the key messages we need them to hear as they embark on their GCSE options process.

I am sure that we will see the enthusiasm they left with yesterday transpire into good take-up of languages for GCSE next year, and hopefully a few of those students will be inspired to continue their language studies beyond GCSE when the time comes. I would also like to get an early booking request in for next year if possible?