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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, Harwich 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. Date: 09/10/2007 Sixteen primary colleagues attended the meeting. We discussed approaches to long term planning before moving on to consider specific examples of half term schemes of work. The principles of the key stage 2 Framework were stressed throughout - creative use of a limited amount of language, the need for progression and ways of integrating language into other areas of the curriculum and into the primary day. We considered different approaches, such as basing a half term's language programme around a theme or a story, and shared ideas on available resources. Finally we looked at a unit from the new QCA scheme of work "Portraits" and discussed how it might be adapted for use in individual schools. Colleagues were able to borrow resources and share ideas ranging from new websites to prayers for Church schools. Date: 10/10/2007 This meeting was attended by four new members to the RSG. As a result, some of the planning material had to be modified because these were mostly staff just starting out with KS2 MFL. We ended up discussing at greater length some of the basic principles and issues surrounding primary MFL with less emphasis on the planning side of things. However, that being said the staff who attended were very positive and keen for us to do some detailed planning together. After some debate we have decided to focus on Little Red Hiding Hood and look in advance at the possibilities offered by the Northumberland Grid for Learning version. Using this as a planning tool will enable staff to familiarise themselves with some of the language and creative opportunties in advance. We hope to encourage more primary staff to attend the second planning meeting so that the work completed can be shared between a greater number of schools. Date: 20/11/2007 Emmanuelle Carme, Essex LA Primary Strategy Consultant,delivered a lively and stimulating session on Christmas activities. She outlined ways in which Christmas and other festivals could be integrated into the primary curriculum and could be exploited to meet KS2 framework objectives for languages. Colleagues identified greetings in different languages, considered ways of bringing festivals alive for pupils and learnt how pupils could make a calendar following instructions in French. Date: 21/11/2007 This RSG session was delivered by Emmanuelle Carme, Primary Languages Consultant, Essex LA. The meeting was well attended, and holding it in a local primary school (as well as the promise of mince pies!) meant a number of staff from the school attended. It was also really positive to see the Head Teacher joining in with the session and activities too. Emmanuelle led an interesting meeting that encouraged us to use the theme of Christmas and festivals, not as an opportunity to deliver a one-off themed lesson, but to use it as an opportunity to really develop pupils' intercutural understanding and language skills over a longer period of time. She gave delegates lots of ideas of how they might do this and the session was both fun and interactive. At the end of the meeting delegates had an opportunity to view and borrow resources. A very good meeting with plenty of audience participation and positive feedback. Date: 28/11/2007 Date: 04/12/2007 Date: 29/01/2008 Sixteen colleagues attended the meeting, which began with the usual informal networking and browsing session. Gill handed out information on CILT courses in France; several colleagues present had attended the French for the Primary School course in the past and recommended it to others. Gill then gave a presentation showing how children's achievement can be celebrated in different ways. We looked first at activities which can be built into school routines: presentations in assemblies and to parents, language days, displays etc. We then considered individual records of achievement, such as "can-do" charts, which give children a sense of pride and are also of value in the transition to secondary school. This led on to a more detailed look at the European Languages Portfolio and discussion of how it links with both Framework objectives and the Languages Ladder. Colleagues took home handouts from the presentations and also resources to help them celebrate mardi gras with their classes. Date: 30/01/2008 This meeting was aimed at schools who are still very much in the initial stages of introducing MFL in their schools. We dicussed the range of possibilities that the school day and curriculum offers for incorporating some MFL teaching. This included the general routines, assemblies and display as well as looking at more specific areas such as numeracy, literacy, geography, PE, drama and technology. A number of activities were demonstrated. We also spent some time talking about the benefits of contact with a partner school and the cross curricular possibilities that a trip abroad can offer, even if it is only a daytrip. There was also time for delegates to look at and borrow resources. Date: 07/02/2008 Date: 20/02/2008 Date: 11/03/2008 12 primary colleagues attended this session delivered by Emmanuelle Carme, Essex Primary Strategy Consultant for MFL. The session focused on sharing practical activities to show how ICT can enhance early language learning. Delegates were given tools to produce their own ICT resources using PowerPoint and SmartBoard. We also explored how ICT could be used to introduce storytelling for KS2 children and short rhymes at KS1. Finally we considered how visual literacy could play a role in the MFL classroom by encouraging children to make their own ICT resources focusing on character description and their understanding of authentic resources. The informal aspect of the session meant that delegates shared ideas on how they used ICT in their own classroom and they left keen to try out some of these new ideas, specifically electronic flashcards. Date: 12/03/2008 This session was led by Emmanuelle Carme, Essex KS2 MFL Consultant. The session was well attended and participants appreciated the hands on, practical approach. Emmaunelle focused on using the interactive whiteboard for a variety of language activities, including hiding images, Connect 4, battleships, sorting activities and making pictures disappear. She also demonstrated how the use of these resources can support the progression from word to sentence level amongst pupils. In the second part of the session Emmanuelle demonstrated how a story can be created using PowerPoint.
Date: 19/03/2008 As above Date: 30.04.2008 We tried a different format with this RSG meeting. The meeting took place from 1pm - 3pm so that regular partcipants had an opportunity to do some planning in school time, rather than at the end of the school day. It also enabled us to have an extra half an hour together. We planned a series of lessons using the context of Petit Chaperon Rouge, and in particular the animated version of the story on the Northumberland Grid for Learning. It was a lively and productive session with lots of good ideas for what language should be prepared in advance of reading the story with the class and how this could be broken down into half hour/40 minute sessions. The session proved particularly useful for staff that had not contributed to MFL planning before. The notes for the session will be written up with some additional ideas and suggestions put in and we hope that some teachers might feel ready to deliver these lessons with their own classes. Date: 06.05.2008 17 primary colleagues attended a session on exploiting the Olympics in Primary Languages. We looked first at Framework objectives for Intercultural Understanding and Knowledge about Language which could be met through the topic, then considered cross-curricular links and ideas for whole school projects. Colleagues were shown online resources and given pupil worksheets in French, German and Spanish based on sports, countries and flags and the five Olympic mascots. The meeting ended with an open discussion on how colleagues planned to use the ideas. Many schools are planning international days in the summer and the Olympics could provide a topical focus - or a new theme for the European day of Languages in September. Date: 22.05.2008 Date: 17.06.2008 11 colleagues attended a lively and informative presentation on Storytelling by Caroline Herring, Comenius East KS2 consultant. Caroline showed us how to exploit three different French and Spanish books, using scanned pages on the whiteboard, puppets, dressing-up props and wordcards. Colleagues joined in enthusiastically with the activities and went away with a wealth of ideas to try out in their own classes. Date: 18.06.2008
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Coordinator: Gill Maynard, Languages Development Officer, Anglo-European School,
Willow Green, Ingatestone, Essex CM4 0DJ