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West Cumbria Regional Support Group |
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There was a smaller group than anticipated for this first session of the new academic year, due to staff meetings and visits from Mr. Ofsted, but 10 people did make the journey from all over West Cumbria to find out about The Training Zone. After enjoying some refreshments and selecting posters, stickers, door signs and board trimmers (purchased from Languages R Fun) it was time to get down to business. First of all Ann Fitzsimmons welcomed everyone and gave an update on what is new in primary Languages both in the county and nationwide, including information on CILT courses abroad. There then followed a presentation of The Training Zone after which we all went to the ICT room for some "hands on". everyone said how much they had enjoyed the session and the opportunity to try the site out for themselves. It is a resource that will be well-used! Finally we had a raffle for a bottle of wine - a small thank you from Ann to the attendees for taking the time to come to the meeting. Date: 15/11/2007 There was a very good turnout for our second RSG of the year, with 14 people coming from all over West Cumbria. Ann Fitzsimmons began the proceedings with an information-giving session, updating everyone on latest local and national developments in Primary Languages. We then looked at the Christmas activities in the Cumbria SoW for Year 3, together with other ideas for activities on a small or large scale, such as following a French recipe for making chocolate truffles, having a "beetle drive" to build a snowman, singing traditional Christmas songs and putting on a French playlet as part of a school's Christmas production (for the more intrepid souls!) We also shared lots of ideas on how to make a little language go a long way - "five minute filler" activities to practise language. Date: 06/02/2008 In this session we looked at how stories offer great potential for primary languages because they encourage children to listen, imagine, predict, comment, participate and express opinions. We talked about the importance of choosing the story carefully, as not all work for language learning, and agreed that the qualities that usually do work include:
We then looked at the fine examples of storytelling on the Primary Languages website and finally discussed how to exploit the story of Little Red Riding Hood in French, with puppets, props and plenty of participation! Recommended reading was Young pathfinder 3 "Are You Sitting Comfortably?" Everyone took home some free resources and we had a raffle for a bottle of wine - always a popular part of the session! Date: 14/04/2008 It was good to see some new faces at this meeting, as well as the "regulars". First of all we welcomed Val Thornber from Bee Lingua, who gave us an interesting insight into her little "tails" of the unexpected. Following this presentation we discussed recent developments at county level, including the Cumbria MFL conference which will be held on 13 June at Low Wood Hotel, Windermere. We are adopting a new Primary Languages Scheme of Work for Cumbria from September - the North Tyneside SoW - which is another exciting new development locally. Finally there was a "show and tell" slot from Ann of some of the resources she collected from the recent CILT Primary Languages Show in Manchester. Before the meeting closed there was the popular raffle for a bottle of wine and everyone went home with an armful of posters, stickers and bookmarks! Date: 24/06/2008 We had a very interesting RSG meeting on 24 June and it was good to see some new faces this time as well as the regulars. We began with a discussion about the national and local picture regarding primary languages and Ann Fitzsimmons reminded attendees of the training that will take place around the county for the new KS2 SoW that Cumbria is adopting from September. We then talked about what is new on the Training Zone and attendees were encouraged to have a look at the many activities and ideas contained there. We then looked at some stories from Northumberland Grid for Learning. Finally we all talked about what had gone well for us this year - and there have been some very exciting primary language things going on in West Cumbria this year! We shared with each other one thing we can't live without in our language classroom and some great ideas emerged. We had the usual raffle for a bottle of wine - and this time also a copy of "La Ronde des Petits" kindly donated by La Jolie Ronde.
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West Cumbria