Employment

In the words of Emma Caira, Principal Teacher of Languages, ‘2024-25 has been one big multilingual celebration in Montrose Academy. An ode to linguistic and cultural diversity and its ability to inspire and unite not just the whole school community, but the wider multicultural community in which our young people live.’ 

Building on a previous successful project involving Polish pupils leading staff lunchtime workshops and staff incorporating Polish phrases into lessons, Emma identified a need for further work to be done to provide an inclusive and multilingual educational experience for their learners. This led to the development of an extensive suite of projects and resources involving all learners from P7 – S6. These include: 

• a version of SCILT’s Language Explorers project developed for S1-S3
• participation in SCILT’s Francofoot project
• Duolingo challenges for staff and learners
• launching an Instagram account to promote languages and culture and their importance in work and life
• partnership with Angus Council Resettlement Team, which gifted books in different languages used to create a "Multilingual Montrose" area of the library. Signage incorporates flags of some of the languages that learners speak alongside the Montrose coat of arms to symbolise how they as a community embrace all languages and cultures. 
• Multilingual P7 transition day
• IDL projects – boules & clay mask-making
• ‘New Scots’ projects, including embroidery, football and conversation groups
• Multilingual careers event
• Multilingual breakfast
• work to create multilingual signage in school 

The impact of this multilingual focus has been significant. There has been a 95% increase in senior phase uptake for the coming academic year. In a rural location, learners are broadening their horizons through these projects and are excited to continue their language learning journey, fully understanding its relevance in the diverse and interconnected world of work and life of today. 

The verification team ran out of superlatives when describing Montrose academy’s SLEA – Multilingual submission! It is absolutely outstanding, and the range and quality of projects undertaken across this year is simply breathtaking. Congratulations on an EXTREMELY well-deserved GOLD Award! 

This submission is an excellent example of embedding a multilingual ethos across the school, cluster and wider community. There really is something there for everyone, regardless of age, stage, language background and interests. The submission was extremely well evidenced, and the verification team appreciated the time that had been spent on collating all of this. It was a joy to read! It was similarly really pleasing to see that Multilingual Montrose is an ongoing mission, with future developments identified and ongoing commitments clear. 

Overall, we were delighted to see a wonderful first-ever submission for this new branch of the award - well done to everyone involved at Montrose for absolutely smashing it!