Post-war Latvian refugees in Great Britain began organising their social life rapidly and with purpose. The Latvian Welfare Fund (DVF) was established in 1947 with regional branches following swiftly. The Latvian National Council in Great Britain (LNC) held its first general meeting on18 November 1950. Gradually Latvian weekend mother-tongue schools began to address the needs of the many children of school age. From 1948 the first ones appeared in Alsager, Hull and West Wells, as well as in London, and other regional centres followed.

Overseeing these schools were parents, DVF members and the Latvian Lutheran Church, with the Latvian National Council taking a coordinating and monitoring role from 1951 within Great Britain and with counterparts in other countries. The purpose of the schools was to ensure children learnt to read and write properly in Latvian, knew the history, culture, and geography of their fatherland. The focus was on folk songs and folk dancing, the latter very much promoted by Alfreds Grigulis, who oversaw the educational activities of the Latvian National Council. One of the main aims was to ensure Latvian children did not assimilate into their new surrounding and forget their heritage.

To begin with, the teachers were people who had been educated and taught in Latvia, thus bringing the traditional Latvian school programme to the mother-tongue schools, but with only 3-4 hours per week available to them, it wasn’t possible to maintain this. Moreover, there was a lack of teaching materials, and as most families did not have cars in those days, so it was difficult to ensure attendance if homes were geographically scattered. Many families also began to move from their initially assigned workplaces and many of these original schools were closed. In Bradford, Paulīne Asmane, with support from the Latvian National Council, set up distance learning courses, sending out material and receiving it back for marking. On 19 February 1950, the Society of Latvians proposed the setting up of a continuing education programme in London, for Latvian young people to further their education in Latvian matters, attending lectures, courses, and discussion groups.

A constant question was how to ensure that any teaching in Latvian might be relevant to life in exile, and in 1957 the European Centre of the Committee for the Restoration of the Independence of Latvia published “Regulations for Latvian schools in exile: general regulations, curricula”. The following topics were to be addressed: Latvian language, history, geography, religious studies, singing, folk songs and folk dancing, and traditional games. Many schools set up their own folk dance groups and choirs, which performed regularly at Latvian festive occasions. These not only entertained the audience but was also a real way of proving the worth of supporting these schools.

In the early years children still had a good grasp of the Latvian language as it was usually spoken in the home, but this changed over the years as children found it easier to communicate in English. In 1959, it was proposed that Latvian be taught as a foreign language, with teachers explaining the many words and phrases Latvian children were no longer familiar with. The Education Section of the Latvian National Council drew up and published a list of books that would be suitable and held regular meetings of Latvian school teachers to raise issues, exchange ideas and discuss new trends in teaching language and music.

Summer camps played an important part in the education of Latvian young people, who could come together during the English school holidays and benefit from a holiday in the country in a Latvian environment, befriend other young Latvians and touch base with their Latvian identity. The largest summer camps took place at Almeley (near Hereford), Rowfant House (West Sussex) and Hothorpe Manor (Leicestershire). The Latvian National Council organised various competitive activities to stimulate the young people’s interest in their fatherland. They had to search for information, deepening their knowledge of Latvia generally, its culture, language and prominent people. Those who achieved the best results received awards distributed at the Latvian National Day celebrations (18 November). Beginning with 1952, the Latvian National Council regularly held seminars on Latvian language and literature for those young people who had completed Latvian school.

In the early 1980s, it was proposed to widen these activities to include children, parents and grandparents – thus the 3x3 camps were born, the first taking place at Almeley in 1983, with the final one in 1997, as the house was sold soon after. From then the 3x3 activities for Latvian speakers took place at the Latvian Welfare Fund property “Straumēni” (Catthorpe Manor), up to 2003. There were also a few camps primarily in English for children of mixed marriages, where their knowledge of Latvian was poor. Alongside these activities were children's festivities attracting a wider age range with the purpose of stimulating interest in Latvian culture. These took place at Straumēni from 1992 to 2003, with a break of 8 years. Then in 2012 a proposal was made to hold a festival called “Flower Children” and was held at “Mūsmājas”, near Coventry. 35 children attended, but the following year there were 112 children accompanied by 120 teachers from 11 Latvian schools.

The Latvian weekend school in London started in 1949 and continues to this day. The Nottingham Latvian school started in 1952 and functioned to the end of 2005. in Leeds, the Latvian school ran from 1957 to 2001.

Political exile came to an end in 1991. The 21st century in the United Kingdom now hosts a new kind of Latvian “expatriate” but with much the same difficulties – how to maintain Latvian identity and language in foreign climes. Thus, new schools are springing up, the first one opening its doors in Mansfield in 2007. There are currently 23 Latvian mother tongue weekend schools across the UK, and in 2011 the general seminars for those undertaking teaching activities in these schools were resurrected. There is close contact with educational departments in Latvia, and the 3x3 camps also take place regularly including those for children who have little or no Latvian language.

Dzidra Purmale describes the Latvian National Council in Great Britain Education Branch and its activities. 23 April 2004.

Fragment of a lecture for young people on the roots of Latvian culture by Jānis Andrups. 25 May 1962.