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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