News from AAL and CILT
Association for Language Learning - News and Events available on their website:
The National Centre for Languages - News and Events
KS1 & KS2
Festival of Languages new
For primary and secondary practitioners, the European day of Languages event "Languages for Life: Loving Languages from Primary to Secondary School and Beyond" to be held at Robertson House on Friday 26th September. More...
New Resources and Information on the Grid - Primary Languages Toolkit
Created by Hertfordshire’s seven Specialist Language Colleges (SLCs), the Primary Languages toolkit is intended to provide Hertfordshire primary schools with ideas, resources and links to support the delivery of languages at Key Stage 2. Ongoing discussions between the LA and the language colleges highlighted the need to extend the support and expertise of the SLCs in a co-ordinated way to impact on all Hertfordshire primary schools. I hope you will find the toolkit useful and plan to add to it as further reources become available. If you have anything you would like to share, please e-mail it to me at nicholas.nesbitt-larking@hertscc.gov.uk
Reports
Ofsted evaluation of 19 Pathfinder authorities on the implementation of Primary Languages. This report contains key findings, recommendations and self-evaluation prompts for primary and secondary schools and LAs. Download from the Ofsted website:
KS1 & 2 Overview
There is now a commitment that by 2010 every Key Stage 2 pupil in England
will be entitled to study a foreign language.
Nationally only 20% of KS2 pupils that are educated in maintained schools
study a foreign language. However national surveys have revealed that
the amount of language studied and the approaches used vary considerably
from school to school. This is also true of Hertfordshire where some
schools timetable a foreign language weekly, whilst others run after
school language
clubs or have no provisions at all.
Whilst there is generally support for the principle of entitlement to
learning a foreign language at Key Stage 2 several issues remain:
the capability of Key Stage 2 staff to deliver foreign language lessons
what format should this entitlement take: actual foreign language
lessons
or
a more generic linguistic approach based on the study of foreign languages
and how they relate to English. Another point for debate is the essential
need for transition to Key Stage 3 so that the good work done at Key
Stage 2 is not wasted: a difficult point if several feeder schools
have followed
different ways to deliver a language- sometimes not always the same
one.
Much research is being currently taking place to pilot a variety of
curriculum models and a growing number of PGCE students training to
become primary
teachers are opting for a MFL component to their course. Language colleges
are also involved in creating links with some of their feeder primary
schools; here again a variety of models are in place ranging from training
of primary staff to deliver lessons in-house to secondary school staff
visiting the primary schools weekly or employing peripatetic teachers
to do so.
14-19
Since September 2004 Modern Foreign Languages as become a statutory
entitlement area at KS4 which means that it is no longer compulsory but
any student wishing to follow a MFL course is entitled to do so.
Information about Foreign Language Assistants
- FLA's work from 1 October to 31 May. FLAs must work a total of 12
hours. You can negotiate for them to work extra hours for extra pay
on their
arrival if so they wish - and they usually do!
- FLA's are entitled to a full day off each week.
- If you share an assistant, please plan their timetable carefully
so that travelling is kept to a minimum.
- If shared, only the host school receives the FLA’s dossier.
Please get in touch with your partner school to let them know what
is going on.
Please contact the assistant before the summer holidays to avoid any
unnecessary anxiety and sort out some temporary accommodation.
- In the case of shared assistants they should spend their first
two weeks in the host school to have more of a chance to settle
in.
- Assistants should be allowed a period of 3 to five days’ observation.
- Assistants should not take sole responsibility for whole classes
and should not be responsible for marking pupils’ work.
- Finally, it is the responsibility of the host school to find
some accommodation for the assistant.
- Forward all paperwork about travel claims and other administrative
matters to lin.goucher@hertscc.gov.uk
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