Our Learning Village story began in 2002 when Director, Caroline Scott, returned from teaching English in a Thai secondary school to take on the role of class teacher in a primary school in Tower Hamlets, London. The class she taught included many new arrivals with limited English. Having worked in English language teaching previously, she knew what could be done but had very little time to deliver this alongside supporting 25 other fluent English speakers.

The challenge was clear:

• How can we ensure that these learners are developing their English while also keeping up with the curriculum content?
• How do we support learners from ANY language background, including those who are pre-literate, use different scripts or speak less widely translated languages?

After sourcing support from the Local Authority, Caroline was encouraged to apply for a grant to develop a programme for ‘new to English’ learners. This was approved, and Caroline spent the next few years creating and refining resources in her school and other schools in Tower Hamlets. 

Later, Caroline secured a role overseas as the founding Head of Primary at a new international school in Cairo. Whilst working in school leadership both there and in Italy, as a Primary Principal of an International School in Milan, she continued her work in English as an Additional Language (EAL) and expanded her initial induction resources into a publication for Taylor and Francis, titled ‘Teaching Children English as an Additional Language’. On submission, Caroline felt the book required far more than she could fit into the allocated page allowance. The publisher agreed that, if the first book was successful, a larger volume could follow to include a more comprehensive approach. The first volume proved highly successful, leading Caroline to write a second book, ‘Teaching English as an Additional Language, 5-11’. She undertook this project while completing her Master’s in Education and a National Professional Qualification for Headship (NPQH).

The challenge was that a book could never provide everything we needed, especially when technology offered far more flexibility for learning. Caroline therefore sought funding for the Learning Village and partnered with Simon Lobo Morrell, a talented programmer. Simon built the Learning Village from scratch based on a wireframe Caroline had designed to serve as the foundation for the Learning Village you see today.

The original development took about two years before the platform was ready to launch. During the first year after launch, no services were paid for; instead, the programme was piloted by various schools worldwide. By that time, Caroline had returned to the UK, where she took on an EAL Advisory role and piloted the Learning Village in one of the schools. In 2015, the Learning Village had less than 50 members, but doubled in size over the next five years. The original map was designed for primary schools exclusively and was a simplified version of what you see today.

Some key learning Village dates:

2013 – Created and developed the Learning Village

2014 – Testing and developing

2015 – Launch of the Learning Village (Primary)

2019 – Launch of Learning Village New Zealand 

2019 – Launch of the Islands (secondary)

2023 – Launch of the Community Village (adults)

2024 – Launch of AssessEP (English proficiency testing)

Aside from Caroline Scott and Simon Lobo Morell, some of our longest-serving staff members, such as Beverley Roby (Memberships) and Heidi Brunner (now Content Development Lead), have been fundamental to our development. We are also fortunate to be joined by several experts in their fields, including EAL Specialists Iva Miteva and Martha Giannakaki, New Zealand-based Breda Matthews, Sally Hay and Miranda Howell (primarily working on our New Zealand Ministry of Education programme) and Karen Wilson, our SEND Specialist. Today, we now have a dedicated team of about 14 staff members supporting Across Cultures and the Learning Village, working with approximately 1,500 schools worldwide across over 30 different countries with over 20,788 learners actively using the Learning Village!

We have seen some incredible developments over the last 10 years and worked with some formidable schools who have provided copious amounts of feedback and support, not to mention the wonderful learners who have not only enjoyed the platform but made great progress and contributions to its success. 

To mark 10 years of the Learning Village, we will be celebrating our ongoing dedication, passion and commitment to learner progress in EAL, SEND and low-level literacy. 

We will be making the following announcements each month to celebrate these incredible milestones!

February announcement

1% of all new memberships will be donated to our partner charity (so watch this space for more information on our chosen charity!)

Coming soon! Find out about…..

In March – Find out more about our partner charity and how we are making a difference together!

In April – Special members and non-members competition

In May – Special reward pack for members who have been with us for over 5 years!

In June – Special additional rewards for members who have been with us for 10 years!

In July – Learn what’s happening in our partner project 

In August – Find out about our special focus on sustainability for our 10th year

Author: Caroline Scott, Author, Advisor and Founder of Learning Village by Across Cultures