Miriam Paridjanian is a passionate French teacher in a South London primary school, who is an advocate for celebrating the rich multicultural and multilingual society in which she lives and works. She writes:
“After ALL’s Language World in March 2025 I got a lift to the station from Anna Grainger (whom I’d never met before) and we got chatting about her project setting up Coventry City of Languages. I was so inspired by her energy and enthusiasm and I determined then and there to get the ball rolling on ‘London: City of Languages’, to celebrate the most multilingual city in the UK. I reached out to my contacts at the British Council and ALL London and was delighted that they shared my enthusiasm and took up my invitation to a hybrid meeting held at my school.
As a primary school educator and South London ALL primary hub leader I am enthused by the chance to share more widely the positive contribution that learning languages can have to the development of my pupils and I am very keen to join with others locally to share ideas about how to involve parents/carers and organise links with other school so that pupils can have an audience for their activities, and learn from each other.”