Author: Angela Noble, North Ayrshire
Last year we boosted teacher confidence by training staff to embed French or Spanish into their daily school routines. Training continues this year and staff are attending twilight courses to further extend their language skills and delivery in the classroom. There has also been huge interest from classroom assistants keen to learn ‘playground games’ in French or Spanish. Many schools are beginning to take ownership of language learning by inviting parents to help run French cafés with the pupils, hosting international or European days, or themed days such as ‘el día de los muertos’. Leaflets and posters have been produced to explain 1+2 to parents.
Two primary schools have created animations using a link with industry, Halo productions. The results are outstanding and can be found on our 1+2 Glow page. A Modern Apprentice at Ardrossan Academy has been helping to develop our 1+2 Glow platform.
Our seconded language teachers are visiting schools to team-teach languages across the curriculum, delivering inter-disciplinary topics. A favourite is the ‘outdoor learning’ topic which can be used towards a John Muir Award. 1+2 secondary staff are working hard to boost communication between the primary and secondary sector, supporting transition topics and liaising with clusters. We also have secondary pupils teaching primary pupils languages through health and wellbeing activities.
Following the success of St Bridget's Primary School’s link with a Spanish school last year, further links with schools abroad are being established. Seven French teachers spent time on Arran, forging educational links for every school there, and now the island is awash with French!
Our development officer is working as part of a national inclusion group to help develop a multi-sensory approach to languages, and this year we also aim to involve our staff in immersion courses abroad, through the LFEE and British Council opportunities.
North Ayrshire's Confucius Hub, based at Greenwood Academy, is enabling our pupils to access global citizenship, embrace Chinese culture through a variety of interesting activities, and we are in the process of applying for a Primary Hub.
Return to December 2016 newsletter