Author: Gillian Campbell-Thow, Glasgow City Council
It’s been a busy session so far in Glasgow for language learning and teaching. We are currently running Primary Language Learning French, Spanish, Italian, German and we start Urdu in the new year. We have also been doing training for early years teachers and child development officers. We have nine teachers currently taking part in the Gaelic Consortium training too! Staff development has been a big priority with recall days, cultural immersion and coaching for primary. Secondary staff are about to undertake the Modern Languages Attainment challenge where they will be in working groups looking at GIRFEC, methodology and new qualifications in more depth.
We have been taking a closer look at meeting the needs of all learners and currently have a development officer, Catherine Nolan, seconded to work with the team on Modern Languages in Autism Education. We are delivering training in the new year specifically for teachers who work in this field.
We have been delighted to welcome a new cohort of Modern Language Assistants (French, Spanish, Italian and German) who have been looked after by Maryse Payen-Roy. They have been participating in CLPL and many of them have now indicated that they want to look at different schools and provision in the city to further enhance their professional experience – bravo!
Our learners have been involved in immersion trips to China, the national Gaelic debate, careers events and at the end of November we have a group of senior pupils who will represent Glasgow at the Euroscola event in the European Parliament in Strasbourg. We also continue to work with Strathclyde's Language Ambassadors to continue our Parliamo Glasgow project, with the aim of widening access for learners to further and higher education.
We’ve been a wee bit busy – so keep up with us on Twitter @glasgowlangs.
Return to December 2015 newsletter