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From little acorns...
The Liverpool project began in 1998 with a neighbourhood cluster of five
schools supported by an advisory teacher. Pupils in Year 6 were taught
French for two half hour sessions per week. The first lesson was taught
by the advisory teacher with the class teacher observing. Later in the
week the class teacher taught the second half hour.
Four of the schools were completely new to Modern Languages but one had
a headteacher who was an experienced and enthusiastic teacher of French.
For many years he had taught French to every year group for forty five
minutes per week and parts of his assemblies were always delivered in
French. The involvement of a committed headteacher with a good local reputation
had a positive impact on the dissemination of the project. The work in
these schools was supported by CILT as part of the Good
Practice Project. From this starting point the number of schools teaching
French and Spanish has increased each year with continued and more intensive
support from the LEA.
We now have fifty
three schools involved in the initiative which has two strands. In all
our work with primary schools our aim is to train class teachers to become
self-sufficient. Class teachers are present during all MFL lessons and
funding is available for them to attend linguistic or methodological training
provided locally or abroad.
Excellence in
Liverpool Enrichment Project
Thirty
three schools are teaching Year 5 or Year 6 pupils French or Spanish.
This is supported by an advisory teacher and three foreign language assistants.
In addition, one of our language colleges (St.Edward's) has employed a
primary liaison teacher to work in eight schools. Some Secondary schools
work with their feeder Primary schools and several Primaries already have
teachers who deliver MFL to a number of Year groups. All of these have
joined with us in planning and delivery to ensure a consistent approach.
In this way Secondary schools find it easier to plan for progression and
continuity when receiving pupils from a wide range of primary schools.
Every child leaves Year six with a European Languages Portfolio (available
from the NACELL website).
These are given directly to the Head of Languages in the Secondary school.
I visit a cross section of Year seven classes to monitor progress and
primary MFL is always an agenda item on termly Heads of Languages meetings.
Where a Secondary school is receiving enough 'project' pupils they are
able to place them in the same classes and still allow for setting. Where
this is not possible and 'project' and 'non-project' pupils are in the
same class the impact on learning is still very positive. In the classes
I have observed, the enthusiasm and good speaking and listening skills
of the project children has spread to the others. As the project involves
more and more pupils, Secondary schools are in an increasingly good position
to provide progression and continuity.
Centres of Excellence
In order to build on the existing good practice in Liverpool and as part
of its bid to become European Capital of Culture in 2008, Liverpool City
Council has provided funding to create nine Centres of Excellence (three
Spanish, three French and three German) over three years. The first schools
were chosen in May and from 1st September began teaching their specialist
language to all pupils from nursery to Year six. Pupils have ninety minutes
of MFL lessons per week and the language is reinforced throughout the
day in many routine activities such as lining up, taking the register
and milk time. Assemblies are also used to reinforce the specialist language
and culture.
Each school is supported
by its own advisory teacher and foreign language assistant. For the whole
year they will be a part of the school staff and take part in all school
activities and training. Class teachers, nursery nurses and classroom
assistants participate in all language lessons and in addition take part
in an after-school lesson of their own taught by the advisory teacher
and foreign language assistant. Headteachers encourage all staff to take
further opportunities to increase their skills in the specialist language.
Parents and governors are also offered the opportunity to learn the specialist
language at evening lessons with the advisory teacher and foreign language
assistant or in class with their children.
Planning for the
language curriculum is based on what is going to be taught in other subjects.
Language lessons revisit the areas covered in subjects such as numeracy,
PE, geography, science and art. Each Centre of Excellence has a link school
abroad. The first visit to the Spanish link school has already taken place
and the 'return leg' begins on 24th September when we will be hosting
twenty teachers from Spain. It is intended that the full range of ICT
resources will be used in learning and communication. Children will communicate
via e-mail and video conferencing. Reception children should be able to
watch their partner class learning the numbers 1-20 alongside them.
Liverpool City Council
has stated its intention to fund phase two of the project at the end of
this three year cycle. There are many elements which have contributed
to the increasing success of Primary Modern Foreign Languages in Liverpool.
Some of the most significant have been:
- inspirational advisory teachers who have the ability and warmth of
personality to make class teachers feel comfortable
- the commitment
of the Chief Education Officer and City Council - which has resulted
in sufficient funding
- increasing commitment
and enthusiasm of headteachers
- support from CILT
Liz Kelly, Liverpool
LEA
DELL
Projects | Liverpool GPP report | ELL
provision in Liverpool | Centres of Excellence
case study
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