Bishop Rawstorne International Language College - 'Family of Schools' Primary Language Project

Bishop Rawstorne International Language College has recently entered Phase 2 of Language College status. This exciting development has allowed us to begin work developing a 'family of schools' with our primary feeder schools, in order to promote MFL provision through curriculum developments and sharing of resources, particularly specialist MFL staff and ICT facilities. Five primary schools receive specialist MFL teaching on a weekly basis which is currently aimed at Years 5 and 6.

Each school has a tailor-made programme to suit the individual needs of both young learners and staff; some children already had experience of MFL through French clubs, whereas others had not.

The curriculum plans broadly follow the National Curriculum for Key Stage 3, which will raise the possibility of 'fast-tracking' various pupils to GCSE level, giving pupils the opportunity to take up an additional language at a later stage. The curriculum is however also being designed with the maximum amount of flexibility to allow MFL to interact with other subjects on the primary curriculum.

This cross-curricular approach will allow MFL to support other subjects, taking into account the heavy time demands on the primary curriculum, and it will also give the young learners a real purpose for their MFL work.

ICT is a key part of our new project. Work is already underway to allow children to use digital video-conferencing links to communicate with Foreign Language Assistants and more advanced pupils at the Language College, and it is hoped that these links will be extended to allow the primary schools within the 'family of schools' to communicate with each other to facilitate sharing of resources and ideas, and for pupils to practise the language they have learnt by talking to other young learners. The video-conferencing work will help to make the KS2 - KS3 transfer a smoother process, and eventually we hope to set up links with primary schools in France.

Other strands of this new initiative include an after-school French club at the Language College to allow children access to our ICT resources on a regular basis, and we will soon be organising Saturday morning clubs further to support this work. We are confident that our work on this new project will benefit both students and staff, and we look forward to developing ideas and resources in conjunction with other schools in the Good Practice Project.

What's Happening | Spring 2000 Update