Young Community Languages

What is Young Community Languages (YCL)?

We are delighted to offer young people in the borough the chance to learn their heritage languages.
We are partnering with schools, Idea Stores and voluntary organisations to provide classes in:

Arabic
Bangla
Mandarin / Cantonese
Somali

What is the benefit for young people and the borough?

Children and young people will make better connections to their heritage / home language and cultures. This can help strengthen relationships with schools and their community.

It celebrates our diversity in the borough and supports the valuable work our voluntary and community sector does. It also helps the new communities and families arriving in the area to integrate.

The chance to build and develop multilingual skills empowers our young people to get accredited. This improves future higher education and work opportunities.

Who can apply for classes?

Learners must be aged between 6 and 18 years old.

Learners can sign up for classes if they meet any one of these three conditions.

They must:

live in the borough
attend a school in the borough
have a parent or guardian who works in the borough

When and where do classes happen?

Classes will take place outside of school hours and on weekends.

We will teach at locations across the borough including:

Idea Store Whitechapel
Idea Store Chrisp Street
Idea Store Watney Market
Idea Store Bow
Columbia Road Youth Centre

We will be adding more venues later this year.

Classes will begin in September and October 2025

We will send you further details after you register your interest.