Vol/XX No/X 2007
FEATURES
Thebig idea
Q What is your languages background?
A I studied French and Spanish, and became
a secondary language teacher in 2004. At that
time primary schools were gearing up for
languages to become statutory and I was the
primary link person for my school. Later I
became a consultant for primary languages.
Q How did you come up with the idea
for BilinguaSing?
A When I had my first baby, in 2012, I saw
there was so much out there for babies:
baby yoga, baby massage, baby music…
and I thought how great would it be to have
mum-and-baby languages class? I created a
class with activities that were sensory and
stimulating, singing songs in English and
Spanish. It ticked all the boxes: parents were
getting music for their babies, a bit of yoga,
their brains were stimulated by learning a
new language with their child.
Q When did you begin catering for
preschool and primary-age children?
A It soon became apparent that the demand
extended beyond the newborn baby, so I
started to write programmes for mobile
babies and toddlers. I also introduced French.
Then, in 2013, just before languages became
compulsory from Year 3, I was contacted by a
few schools about running language clubs.
Q How did you develop the franchise?
A From the very beginning I wanted to do it
well enough that it could be franchised. I was
learning about children's franchises from
taking my daughter to classes. Being in the
classroom for 10 years hadn't equipped me
with business skills but I'm lucky that my father
is a business coach. I started by picking
people's brains, attending training courses but
I realised I couldn't do it on my own. That's
when Neil, our Business Director, came in.
He's a friend of my husband with experience
in helping small businesses. We developed a
support structure that is really robust and
friendly. We have regular meet-ups and
training. People have come from corporate
backgrounds, marketing, customer service;
they all bring something to BilinguaSing.
BilinguaSing Founder Ellie Baker on establishing
a successful franchise of music-led language learning
Q How did the CDs come about?
A I felt that having a backing track was less
daunting for parents so I worked with a local
producer to get some music recorded. It also
meant I had CDs that parents could buy to use
between classes. I've written the songs for
the primary CDs to help deliver the curriculum,
teaching children to be able to structure the
language and re-use that in real-life situations.
Q What are the benefits of using song?
A We're using music to help people retain
language. You go into a school maybe for 30
minutes a week and it isn't enough. But the
music seems to stick in the head a lot more.
Q What are your plans for the future?
A There are now 10 of us in the UK, as well as
a small head office team, and we're hoping to
launch a franchise in France next year. We've
had inquiries from Mexico, Sri Lanka, Canada,
Hong Kong; the question is making sure we
are focusing our efforts in the right place
because I think it has to start at home.
http://bilinguasing.com
