Employment

Montrose Academy

Montrose Academy is a comprehensive school located in Montrose, Angus. It accommodates approximately 850 young people. The curriculum offers French, German and Spanish.

For more information about the school, visit the Montrose Academy website. 

Aims

This BLC project is a motivating and relevant way of showing young people that languages are a key skill in today’s increasingly international market place. The experience will make them think more positively about carrying on with their language learning at school.

Loch Duart

Loch Duart is a salmon company that specialises in sustainable, high quality produce. Their farms, where they rear their salmon, are located in the northwest coast of Sutherland. The company has their head office in Scourie, Sutherland. They also have offices in Montrose, Angus and in Lorient, France. Today, the company farms a total of nine sites, employing around 60 local people. 

Find out more about Loch Duart.

The visits

SCILT, Loch Duart and the school language department worked together to create an exciting programme for S3 learners with visits and workshops culminating in an interdisciplinary project in which the young people created a point-of-sale flyer and a price stabber. 

To launch the project the sales director from Loch Duart went to Montrose Academy to present the company and speak about the links they have with France. 

A smaller group of youngsters - two representatives from each S3 class - visited Loch Duart offices in Montrose. There, they had the opportunity to video conference with the Brittany office and asked questions in French. They learned in more detail about the company and saw and heard employees selling salmon using a range of languages. 

After the visit, the Head of Department said:  

Staff from SCILT delivered a workshop in French to all S3 learners. They got the opportunity to be involved in different activities in which the young people could use their current knowledge, learn new vocabulary and improve their reading, listening and writing skills. 

Here are some of the young people’s comments: 

• I worked as part of a team to understand a description of the company in French 
• I learned how to work with new people
• I think it is useful to know languages for a lot of jobs
• Languages are important because businesses look for people who can speak different languages

The Advertising Campaign

It was decided during the planning that the youngsters would finish the project by creating and presenting a point-of-sale flyer and a price stabber. 

The sales director from Loch Duart gave a clear brief about the company’s requirements for the completed sales materials: 

• The salmon should be presented as the best quality, best tasting on the market. Text should include a brief introduction to the company and its philosophy. 
• A clear but very short and concise product description is required for the shopper. 

The pupils worked in groups of three or four to produce their designs, taking into account the requirements of the brief and the accuracy of the French. 

Showcase final

A group of about thirty youngsters were selected to take part in the final challenge. Learners worked in groups preparing a presentation in French about their final product.   

The final stage of the project took place at Angus House in Forfar. The youngsters presented their price stabber and leaflet to a panel of judges from Loch Duart, SCILT, Angus Council and Montrose Academy. Every group was extremely well prepared and delivered impressive presentations, making the judging very difficult! The winning group took the main prize of an all-expenses paid gourmet French meal at the sensational Gordon’s restaurant in Inverkeillor, plus some iTunes vouchers generously donated by Loch Duart. Other fantastic prizes were awarded to the runners up and each group who participated received a prize from SCILT too. 

View the winning PowerPoint.

The learners’ feedback demonstrated how much they had enjoyed and benefited from the project:

• I really enjoyed it because it was challenging and I liked learning new French.
• I found it all interesting because it was like being on the ‘Young Apprentice’, which I enjoyed very much.
• I think it is very useful to have a language and I am considering taking French over the next few years.
• Studying a language opens many doors for you when you leave school, and when looking for a job.

Of the pupils surveyed, 100% stated that they would consider studying a language in the senior phase. The numbers in the senior phase reflect this and are significantly healthier this session, with two National 5 French classes running, as well as National 5 Spanish and German. The breadth and depth of the challenge raised the bar for the pupils and the whole year group benefited from seeing first-hand how languages and business work together.