WJEC/Wrexham Area Schools

Following the success of their participation in a Socrates project called Intersect 2000, a small number of primary schools in the Wrexham area applied to join the Early Language Learning initiative. Their bid was successful and it was named as one of the DfEE Good Practice Projects.

The schools are following a course called Aprécole, written by a native speaker. The teachers have received some training sessions on using the course with young learners. Three schools are working with the Aprécole course. They supplement the course with other materials and strategies. They have received support and advice from the Project Officer and the Project Co-ordinator. We are applying and then adapting the language-teaching lessons learned as a result of previous national training for Welsh 2^nd Language.

Pupils, mostly Year 6 but some Year 5 as well, clearly enjoy their French lessons. They participate with eagerness and have a desire to show what they can do. They particularly enjoy singing songs and playing games. The High School reports that, in relation to the previous year's pupils involved, these pupils show increased confidence with the language, especially less able pupils - a raison d'être in itself.

Time pressures are inevitable in the already-crowded primary curriculum. This is especially so in our case as we have to include Welsh. The French lessons are the ones that tend to be squeezed when teachers are faced with preparations for Christmas, St. David's Day and Eisteddfod. Nevertheless, the Project progresses and pupils are getting a solid grounding in French. The pupils find it fun and show positive and confident attitudes towards the language: a powerful argument in favour of the GPP.

This year has not proved to be an easy one. We have suffered through losing 'specialist staff'. Our cluster has diminished in size to just three schools within the Good Practice Project. Staffing is a key issue for us and our experiences highlight the need to share the teaching of primary languages across the whole staff.

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