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Author: Angela Noble, Virginie Pesci and Debbie Johnston, North Ayrshire

North Ayrshire’s Erasmus+ Mobility programme

It is with great excitement that we embark on a partnership with the British Council and offer a fabulous opportunity to fifty of our North Ayrshire staff from nursery, primary and secondary sectors, including 1+2 team members and management. As well as immersing themselves in language courses abroad, some teachers will have the opportunity to shadow staff in schools in France and Spain with whom they have already established links. Pupils are currently compiling a list of questions for teachers to investigate during their time abroad, and our long term aim is to apply for the Mobility 2 programme and take the pupils with us!

J’adore dehors: outdoor learning in North Ayrshire

Our initiative, inspired by SCILT’s John Muir outdoor learning programme, encourages P6 pupils to connect with, enjoy and care for nature, in school forest areas or on the beach. Pupils have been learning French whilst creating pieces of art and exercising outside the classroom. They are reinforcing their numeracy and literacy skills, at the same time as revising or learning new French words.

Pupils work individually or in groups, learning lots of new words and phrases and gaining confidence in the four skills: talking, listening, writing and reading.

Spanish in North Ayrshire

This is the second year of Spanish in North Ayrshire primaries and the 1+2 team is delighted with the progress.

There has been a huge demand this term for Spanish Years 1-3 training. Stacey Arneil has delivered three crash course Spanish Years 1-3 courses. Staff can access the PLL framework sound files on Glow along with a variety of resources to embed Years 1-3 into their daily classroom routines. Our phrase of the week continues on Twitter with a focus on vocabulary for summer time.

Señora Arneil attended World Book Day celebration at Stanley Primary, sharing stories ‘Aliens Love Underpants’ and ‘Green Eggs and Ham’ in Spanish.

Susana and Stacey were invited to West Kilbride Primary’s Spanish celebration day. They visited all classes and played games that focused on learning shapes and parts of the body in Spanish. Children tried paella, made by chefs from the Seamill Hydro, enjoyed Spanish playground games, organised by classroom assistants, and danced Flamenco with Silly Gilly! School dinners were invaded by ‘chorizo’ and ‘churros’. Spanish really is alive and kicking in West Kilbride Primary!

St Bridget’s, St Winning’s and St Anthony’s Primaries have all established links with Spanish schools this year, and St Bridget's are looking forward to welcoming Nuria from Burgos next month.

St Winning's Primary is the winner of the Scottish Education Awards 2017 ‘Making languages come alive (primary)’ category! Francesca Boyle has been working hard to bring languages alive within the school and has been taking it out into community nurseries and care homes. As well as being involved with Lingo Flamingo and teaching languages across the generations, pupils have teamed up Pennyburn Primary to promote L3 through an anti-sectarian project.

Stacey has been organising additional visits to help teachers reach their target of embedding Spanish Years 1-3 this session. She visited ASN school James Reid School to introduce some basic Spanish through song, games and movement. Thinking ahead, Stacey has been working with early years classes at Stanecastle Early Years, Gateside Primary, Beith Primary and Ardeer Primary. Children have been enjoying learning numbers, colours and greetings through singing and dancing. Watch this space!

L2 Spanish P7 transition topic

The Pokémon topic has been received very well by P7 pupils across the authority. Units on animals, colours and descriptions, personal information, food, places in the house and school have been delivered through a variety of activities covering talking and listening, reading and writing. These activities have included designing a creature with written description in Spanish, SPLAT!, headbands, tortilla team game, Pokémon hunt, Simón dice, singing “La cucaracha” and rapping “¿Tienes animales?”

P7 staff felt the transition topic engaged their learners effectively: ‘The Pokémon topic was excellent. The sessions were fantastic and really engaged the children. The content was relevant, it was delivered effectively and it progressed children’s knowledge. Thank you.’

Pupils’ responses were evident in their evaluations:

‘I enjoyed the Spanish and the great games; also the Pokémon topic was relatable.’

‘It was a good way of remembering all of the colours, animals, food, numbers and names.’

‘I really liked designing the Pokémon and I really liked the time to learn more Spanish!’

‘I found it really fun and I think it’s important that we learn Spanish and I would like to learn more.’ ‘It was a great course to learn new language in a fun way.’

‘I liked “poisoned apple” and Pokémon hunt and enjoyed learning, I think I have improved. Thank you very much.’ ‘I liked the Spanish activities and games, and I have learned new Spanish words.’