Employment

This project is co-ordinated by Erin Cruickshank, a student at the University of St Andrews who is completing her year abroad. 

Erin connected with primary schools in her home area of West Lothian in order to share the benefit of her time in France and to use that as an opportunity to inspire learners at home. 

She provides the schools involved with weekly PowerPoint presentations as teaching resources for the French language. These presentations include a recap of the week before through a game or song, an update on Erin’s adventure in order to make it an immersive and true cultural experience for learners who are accessing the presentations, followed by new weekly , content.  

Once a month Erin also hosts a Teams call with four language ambassadors from each school – 20 learners in total - where they provide feedback on the resources, ask any questions that their class have, and discuss what they would like to see more or less of. 

This is leading to the implementation of a pen-pal scheme between the schools in France and in Scotland.  

Erin also made connections with a local café in France which has become a key partner, giving authentic context to her lessons and developing learners’ knowledge of vocabulary and processes in this type of work. The café owner recorded a video for learners about the role of languages in his work and they are collaborating on further activities. 

This project is a fantastic example of an SLEA Local partnership and submission, and is a worthy recipient of the award. Congratulations! 

The verification team was hugely impressed by this excellent partnership between Erin (on behalf of the University of St Andrews), primary schools in West Lothian, and a café business in France. It was felt that this represents a really strong long term, multi-level project with clear employability, intercultural and global citizenship elements. It is a genuinely local partnership that spans localities in two countries.  

The team also felt that monthly Teams call between Erin and four language ambassadors from each of the West Lothian schools is an excellent component of the project; it provides a meaningful opportunity for pupil leadership, is responsive to the needs of learners and teachers in West Lothian and really fits the bill for SLEA Local partnership.  

The additional submitted evidence demonstrates how languages skills/competencies are incorporated at all levels, in all partner contexts.  

We want to commend Erin for her leadership in this partnership. The personal element from her gives a very relatable thread running through all aspects of this partnership. The tie in with Erin’s local café in France and the video from the owner make it really personal, as does the fact that Erin has tied this in with her own life, acknowledging ways that she finds to improve her language and including tips about language learning. It complements and enhances the schools’ delivery of key aims of Scotland’s Languages Policy in a really meaningful way.   

We also noted the opportunity for expansion of this partnership, as noted in the proposed pen pal programme. In addition, it was suggested by the team that more projects could be developed alongside the café, and also that there is the possibility of including West Lothian (and potentially French) secondary schools as a transition project. 

This really is a wonderful, inspiring project. Warmest congratulations again to all partners involved.