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Essex East Regional Support Group |
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Essex
East RSG holds regular sessions at different centres
around Chelmsford, Colchester, Rayleigh and Saffron Walden. Meetings are
open to everyone involved in planning and delivering MFL in KS1/2: primary
head teachers and class teachers, secondary teachers, PGCE students and
teacher trainers. Session 17:
19 June 2007 Session 16:
19 June 2007 Session 15: 12 June 2007 Session 14:
5 June 2007 Session 13: 25 April 2007 Session 12:
24 April 2007 Session 11:
21 March 2007 Session
10: 20 March 2007 Session 9:
6 March 2007 Session
8: 24 January 2007 Session 7:
23 January 2007 Session
6: 23 January 2007 Session
5: 28 November 2006 Session
4: 22 November 2006 Session
3: 21 November 2006 Session
2: 1 November 2006 Session
1: 3 October 2006
11 colleagues attended the meeting, including Louise Wei, a Chinese language assistant, who talked briefly about her work in primary schools in Thurrock. Gill gave an update on national and local developments in primary languages: the national KS2 Framework training programme, the revised QCA scheme of work, LA inset and new LA plans to link every primary school to a specialist language college. The Essex RSGs work closely together and have regular contact with Emmanuelle Carme, the MFL Primary Strategy Consultant. We then explored ways of integrating languages into the school day, looking at daily routines, display, celebrations and cross-curricular links. PE can include parachute activities and maths can be treated in an age-appropriate way. A CD-ROM big book (available from Early Start) can help non-specialists to deliver Literacy objectives from the KS2 Framework. One local primary has used “La chenille qui fait des trous” for harvest festival. A handout is available on the school website: www.angloeuropean.essex.sch.uk/Languages.htm Colleagues were able to borrow story books and other resources from the RSG library. The CD-ROM big books will be added to the library this autumn. Session
2: Resources for primary languages The session
was to introduce the existing resources and resource lists and sheets
to new attendees, to report back on the use of some of the resources and
to demonstrate and explore some newly available commercial resources and
web sites. Session
3: Christmas activities This was our first Harwich session this year and although the numbers were lower than hoped for everyone attending had plenty of fun and managed to muster a little Christmas spirit even though we were not even into December yet! We started the session with some brief introductions followed by some updates on primary languages. The rest of the session was devoted to Christmas activities with examples of a range of cross curricular possibilities. We started by looking at some simple activities at mainly word level, using images and the IWB for producing learning tools. There was also a reminder of the range of games that can be used to introduce new vocabulary to children. We then went on to discuss how rhymes and poems can be used and took as examples a rhyme about the snowman aimed at KS1 and a poem written by a child on the ‘jecris’ website. Music was next with examples of a few Christmas songs that could be written into the Christmas service or production; Vive le Vent, O Tannenbaum and Silent Night in three languages were some of the ones we had a go at together! The variety and wealth of material that can be found on websites was our next focus and a range of examples was given to attendees to take away, as well as a list of useful websites with a brief description of what was on offer. We ended the session with a bit of design and technology and made Santa hats using instructions in French. Finally everyone was given the opportunity to browse through and borrow some of the general resources available as well as examples of a range of activities with a Christmas/Winter focus.Session
4: Christmas activities The session introduced and demonstrated a variety of ideas, resources and web sites relating to teaching on a Christmas theme. Songs, games, roleplays, stories, poems, make and do, background information etc. The meeting was much better attended than the previous one. Reminders were sent as before and I also made a few follow up phone calls the week before the meeting.This is time consuming but seemed to work! The mood of the meeting was very positive. It was fun and we all learned something. The free resources were gratefully received. One of the attendees offered her Primary School as a venue for the next meeting and the offer was accepted. Session
5: Christmas activities 15 colleagues attended the meeting, which started with festive refreshments: Lebkuchen and Stollen. Gill gave an update from CILT, referring colleagues to information sheets in their resource packs on new online Spanish CPD materials and the DfES FAQs on funding etc. Carrie then gave an inspirational presentation on ways of exploiting a Christmas story “Le petit sapin”, using pictures and text on powerpoint. She showed the varying approaches suitable for pupils of different ages and demonstrated how storytelling could be used to meet many of the Framework objectives. In addition to detailed teaching notes, Carrie generously offered to email her full package of resources to colleagues, so they could use the powerpoint immediately. Gill spoke about online resources for Christmas and distributed details of French, German, Spanish and Italian websites.Colleagues were able to borrow story books and other resources from the RSG library, including French CD-ROM - big books. Session
6: Playground games 14 colleagues attended the meeting, which started with refreshments and browsing time.Gill gave an update from CILT, referring colleagues to information sheets in their resource packs with news of the QCA KS2 scheme of work, language competitions and CILT courses.Gill then gave a presentation on playground games for primary languages, using pictures and text on powerpoint. Games often require minimal language, children can play them independently and they be used to meet many of the Framework objectives. We looked at authentic games in French, German and Spanish and discussed their suitability and ways in which they could be integrated into playtime routines. TAs, midday assistants and Year 6 play leaders could all contribute.We also discussed activities for mardi gras / Karneval: masks, recipes and pancakes.Colleagues were able to borrow story books and other resources from the RSG library, including French CD-ROM big books. Handouts from the meeting will be on the Anglo-European School website Session 7:
Playground games for language learners This was a very good session in spite of a disappointing turn out. We went through a wide variety of classroom/playground games in both French and German. The games were presented through a power point demonstration that incorporated all the necessary language and rules for play. Colleagues were able to take these notes away with them. Demonstration was a little difficult with such low numbers, but we had a go at one or two anyway! The games were mainly authentic with one or two adaptations of English playground games. We discussed ways in which these could be integrated into classroom routines and also how the games support a number of the KS2 Framework objectives. There was time to look at and borrow resources as well as a few updates, including QCA SOW and the CILT Primary Languages Conference. Session
8: Playground games The session was fun and active with lots of ideas presented and shared. We looked at games in 2 categories - adaptations of English games with which teachers and children are familiar – games from TL countries and websites which provide details more – some were presented and then we took some suggestions and adapted them there. We then briefly looked at the Framework links. Again attendance could have been better but those who came participated well and shared and took home lots of ideas. Session 9: Songs, rhymes and stories 15 primary and secondary
colleagues attended the meeting. We began by looking at the Easter handouts
in their resource packages, which included worksheets and puzzles for
children and suggested activities and websites for teachers. Session
10: Integrating languages into the school day This session was devoted to looking at how MFL can be established as a part of everyday routines, both in and out of the classroom and we also started to explore some of the cross curricular opportunities presented by MFL teaching. The session was delivered via a power point presentation with lots of practical examples demonstrated for colleagues. We looked at how to use the register in a variety of ways, exploiting birthdays and everyday classroom routines such as commands, labelling objects in the classroom, naming groups counting and the alphabet. We also explored some of the opportunities presented by assemblies and performances and a few ideas of simple songs and or drama routines were demonstrated here. Cross curricular examples of activities were given using PE, Drama, Geography, History, Technology and ICT. Finally we spent some time looking at and borrowing resources as well as giving colleagues an opportunity to view the recently launched Primary Languages website.Session 11: Integrating languages into the school day Meeting fed back on previous session on outdoor games. We then explored the value of embedding MFL in the primary school day and a variety of techniques and opportunities for including MFL in general primary routines, in class, in whole school routines, in the wider curriculum and special events. We aim to follow up the session in June with a session planning and preparing a Languages Day which we hope to run in July. Session 12: Outdoor games for the summer term 16 primary and secondary colleagues attended the meeting. We began by looking at the new Primary Languages training zone website, which offers excellent online support for teachers of primary languages. Details of CILT courses and an update on the new KS2 schemes of work were also distributed. Gill showed how outdoor games can be used to meet the Framework objectives for all four years and to embed languages in the primary curriculum. She referred back to the earlier RSG session on playground games and colleagues talked about the games they had tried out and pupils’ reactions to them. We then looked at the activities outlined in Daryl Bailey’s handout “PE and parachutes” in French, German and Spanish. Everyone liked the variety of games suggested, which included different levels of language and it was agreed that this could be an ideal way for less confident teachers to introduce language to their classes. Colleagues were able to borrow story books and other resources from the RSG library, including French and Spanish CD-ROM big books. Our thanks to Daryl and her colleagues in West Sussex for sharing their resources with us. Session 13: Outdoor games for the summer term Session 14:
Outdoor games for the summer term Session 15: Planning a languages day 18 primary colleagues attended the meeting. Gill gave an update on national and local primary languages issues, including information on ordering copies of the new QCA scheme of work, a request from Anglia Ruskin University for schools to take PMFL trainees and details of schools looking for language teachers next term. We then discussed ideas for languages days and one-off language events in primary schools. Suggestions from the ELL-forum were distributed and colleagues supplemented these with their own experiences. It was agreed that a language day could be part of an end of term celebration or could be planned for the European day of Languages on 26 September. The Tour de France would be an ideal theme for this summer. Session 16: Planning a languages day This meeting ended up being split into two parts due to a discussion that started at the beginning of the meeting about resources and units of work. Colleagues wanted to share ideas about the quality of resources that they already had in their schools and discuss how we might use future RSG meetings for some joint planning. The discussion was a little impromptu, but the ideas and suggestions were both valid and useful to inform future RSG planning. Colleagues were also reminded they had a day left to order their free copy of the new QCA KS2 SOW. The second part of the meeting was devoted to planning a languages day(s) which we also tied in with the European Day of Languages. A presentation was made on how the whole school and curriculum can be involved in an event like this and suggestions were made for each subject area as well as how all staff (including kitchen staff), parents, younger siblings, the PTA and governors can contribute to or be involved in this kind of event.Session 17: Planning a languages day NACELL Regional Support Groups are funded by the DfES and co-ordinated by CILT, the National Centre for Languages in support of the National Languages Strategy. |
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Coordinator: Gill Maynard, Languages Development Officer, Anglo-European School,
Willow Green, Ingatestone, Essex CM4 0DJ