A network built by its schools.
EMSEN — the East Midlands Supplementary Education Network — connects the volunteer-run schools that teach heritage languages, culture and curriculum support across our region.
From five schools to a regional network.
EMSEN began in 2004, when the organisers of five Nottingham supplementary schools started meeting each term to share what no one else could tell them — how to find a venue, keep children safe, and stretch a tiny budget across a whole year of Saturdays.
Word travelled. Schools from Derby, Leicester, Northampton and Lincoln joined, and the informal circle became a constituted network: shared training, a common quality framework, and one voice when speaking with councils and mainstream schools.
- 2004 Five Nottingham schools hold the first network meeting
- 2011 First joint training day and shared safeguarding policy
- 2018 Partnership with NRCSE brings the Quality Framework to members
- 2024 The network passes twenty member schools across five cities
- Training & safeguardingSupport and DBS guidance for volunteers
- Quality frameworkHelp working towards NRCSE Bronze–Gold
- Funding & grantsFinding and applying for small grants
- A shared voiceWith councils and mainstream schools
Run by volunteers, like our schools.
Elected each year at the network AGM- Nasreen AkhtarChair · Nottingham
- Piotr NowakTreasurer · Derby
- xxxxMembership · Leicester
Want to be part of the story?
Membership is free for community-led supplementary schools in the East Midlands.