Primary Modern Languages

Wednesday 18th March 2009
The aims for this day were to set the context for PML in light of the curriculum review by Jim Rose, to develop understanding of the KS2 framework for Languages, enhance the understanding of the Subject Leader, to develop skills for language learning across the school and to explore Quality First teaching in Primary Modern Languages.

The most important area for us to consider at Woodford Junior School is the reshaping of the Languages Curriculum as the curriculum review suggests the move to 6 key strands. These strands will be skills based curriculum areas. Languages have been incorporated within the strand of ‘Understanding English, communication and languages’. This will encourage and exploit links between literacy and languages and transferable skills.



Key Stage 1 and Post 14 are non statutory elements of Languages for Life, whereas KS2 and KS3 are statutory elements or will be from the academic year 2010 / 2011. If you look at the balance of this there are four years of language at Key Stage 2 and only three years at Key Stage 3. This shifts huge responsibility to Key Stage 2 for the teaching of languages.

The statutory entitlement for languages is 60 minutes. It is suggested that this is best modelled as a 30 minutes discrete lesson followed through the week by 3 x 10 minute integrated sessions. We currently do 30 minutes per week which is blocked into hour sessions for half a term.

It has been suggested that there is an impact on children’s learning across the board, notable a raised achievement in Literacy. Other examples suggest that when multiplications tables are done as a mental oral in French language, the children focus on the language and the facts acquired in Numeracy are incidental.

It is suggested that schools only focus on one or two languages to ensure rigorous and sustained progression across the key stage. This will also ensure that the national expectations of level 4 for languages will be achieved also. This is the end of the preliminary stage of the Language Ladder.

The Rose report recommends that there should be continued rigorous and thorough subject development and a continuance of the development of the Work force. In Plymouth this is going to be through funding of Languages training.
For the next academic year we will not be required to submit an action plan for funding as we have in previous years, rather the money will be accessed through attendance at training days which will be for specific year groups. The funding will be released as ‘supply cover’ through attendance at the courses. The courses themselves will be free. School will be able to send as many staff as they want to each course but supply cover will only be give for one teacher, if both teachers in a year group attend training the school would need to cover the costs for the second and subsequent teacher. These courses are due to start after Easter.

The feeling is very much that teachers will be at the forefront of language delivery therefore attendance at the sessions is vital to develop confidence and ideas for teaching languages. Class teachers will need to develop their skills.

At the moment we use a French Native speaker to help plan and deliver lessons alongside the PML Subject Leader. This often means though that integrated language work does not take place.

In my mind the ideal model for the development of quality first languages at Woodford would be to continue to use Gabrielle along side the subject leader to deliver 30 minute discrete language sessions to each class each week. This would then be supplemented by integrated sessions by staff in their classes, through activities for brain breaks, mental orals, classroom routines etc. It is vital that fun remains at the heart of language learning.

Primary Geography Conference, 25th September 2008

As always the half day conference led by David Weatherly was a morning well spent. I always come away with resources and ideas that can be used or adapted easily for our curriculum.

Today David was quite excited about the Primary Curriculum Review which is due at the end of October. He suggests that there will be broader areas of learning experiences; there will be less in new programmes of Study. We will be encouraged to spend longer doing less and there will be greater inter subject connections. This is certainly good news and will involve better quality teaching and learning opportunities.

David always refers back to what we are looking to achieve when we teach geography – referring to it as a table with four legs and a table top.

1. Where / How do the children progress and what opportunities do we offer the children to ensure that they are able to exhibit level 2, 3 4 or even level 5 capabilities? What opportunities are there for the children to reach conclusions, to reason and explain, to use simple or appropriate advanced vocabulary?
2. Geography should be an enquiry, experiential, investigative, independent personalised learning. What do we do to find out where the children are now? What do we do to move them on to where we want them to be in terms of the learning activity? How do we help make sense of geographical Enquiry processes?
3. There are really very few PoS and there will be even less in the new curriculum.
4. The Primary National Strategy encourages us to be imaginative and creative ensuring that we are robust i.e. the children are being appropriately challenged intellectually.
On top of all this we have the topic / theme / issue / dimension.
If there is no BIG idea then don’t teach it!

Higher order thinking skills will be a key focus in the new National curriculum.

The buzz words (for interviews) then at the moment are metacognition, robust curriculum and appropriate expectations.

We then looked at the theme of RIVERS. The big idea being ‘Through erosion and deposition, river water changes the landscape’.
The unit hangs around a series of key questions which are

1. What is a river?
2. What happens along the course of a river?
3. Where do rivers get their water?
4. How does a river change from source to mouth?
5. Where do rivers start and how do they change the landscape?
6. Why does water suddenly fall along a river?
7. Why do rivers bend?
8. What happens at the mouth of a river?
9. Is this the most famous meander in the world?
10. How and why does the River Otter and its valley change from source to mouth?
11. How can we help infant children to learn about rivers?

Throughout the unit there are a range of activities to engage the children – many of which involve observing, discussing, describing, comparing, contrasting, reasoning, estimating, explaining, describing patterns, processes, links and relationships, suggesting explanations and conclusions. There are connections to many other curriculum areas.

In terms of attainment it was interesting to note that all agreed that attainment does not have to be replicable – it is a snap shot at that moment in time!

In December, Devon Education Services are planning a day conference which will focus on the current curriculum review emphasis on the importance of a strong flexible learning programme. The day is themed ‘Creative and coherent cross-curricular planning in the primary curriculum: the weather and our world’. I hope that I will be able to attend.