Modern Foreign Language (MFL)
Christmas Newsletter
Autumn Term - December 2012
Christmas is upon us!
Inside this issue:
Page 1 Welcome
Page 2 Additional DfE consultation on language
Mandarin in UK schools
Pages Reform of Key Stage 4 exams
3,4 & 5
Page 5 French Gangnam style
Primary language awards
Page 6 Spring course overview - primary
Page 7 Spring course overview - secondary
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MFL subject review
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The new languages subject guidance has just
been published to match the new Ofsted
framework:
http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/resources/genericgrade-descriptors-and-supplementary-subjectspecific-guidance-for-inspectors-makingjudgemen
The message about the use of target language
by students is very clear.
Visit the Grid to find some very useful links for teaching resources:
http://www.thegrid.org.uk/learning/mfl/ks1-2/christmas.shtml
http://www.sunderlandschools.org/mfl-sunderland/resources-christmas-sp.htm
Additional DfE consultation on language learning at KS2
The Department for Education has announced an additional consultation on languages at Key Stage
2.
On 6 July 2012 the Rt. Hon. Michael Gove MP, Secretary of State for Education, launched a public
consultation on the Government’s proposal to make languages a compulsory subject at Key Stage 2
in maintained schools from September 2014. The vast majority of respondents agreed with the
Government’s intention to introduce foreign languages at Key Stage 2.
Having carefully considered the responses to the consultation, as well as a range of relevant factors,
the Government has confirmed its intention to make the study of a foreign language compulsory at
Key Stage 2.
The results have prompted the DfE to open an additional consultation on specifying the choice of
language at Key Stage 2, and it is now seeking views on:
1. The draft of the Order necessary to make foreign languages a statutory subject at Key Stage 2
from September 2014
2. A new proposal that requires primary schools teach one or more of French, German, Italian,
Mandarin, Spanish or a classical language (Latin or Ancient Greek) to pupils at Key Stage 2.
‘Schools would, of course, be free to teach other languages in addition if they wish to do so.’
I urge you to your say - only 300+ teachers across the whole country made comment in the first
round consultation!
http://www.education.gov.uk/aboutdfe/departmentalinformation/consultations/a00216689/modernforeign-languages
Mandarin in UK schools
Recently, it was announced that six-year-old Suri Cruise, the daughter of Tom Cruise and Katie
Holmes, will be learning to Mandarin at school; and celebrities’ interest in teaching their children
Mandarin has reignited the debate on teaching the language in UK schools.
Ann Swarbrick, President of ALL and languages education lead for Initial Teacher Training at the
CfBT Education Trust, said:
"We work with the British Council and Hanban providing a support programme for the 70-100
experienced Chinese interns who are sponsored by the Chinese government to teach Mandarin in
UK schools for a 12-month period. The problem here is not applicants but quality placements. We
have 20-30 applications per year, but the number of schools introducing Mandarin is small at the
moment. Providing an appropriate teaching timetable is challenging and so some trainees offer a
second subject."
Mandarin is becoming dominant within the world of business. This current generation we are
teaching in our Hertfordshire schools will need to work in this language and understand the Chinese
culture as China has become a powerful global economy.
If you are already teaching Mandarin please contact Jackie Rayment, County Adviser for MFL
jackie.rayment@hertfordshire.gov.uk
Page 2
Education Secretary Michael Gove's statement about the
reform of Key Stage 4 exams
On 17 September 2012,
Education Secretary
Michael Gove made an
announcement on the
reform of Key Stage 4
exams.
Here is his oral statement
to the House of
Commons:
‘’With your permission Mr
Speaker, I should like to
make a statement about
the future of examinations and assessment in
our schools.
The examination which the overwhelming
majority of young people now sit at 16 - the
GCSE - was designed with the best of
intentions. It sought to broaden the numbers
engaging in academic study and prepare them
for an expansion of further and higher
education.
In the years since it was established we have
undoubtedly seen improvements in our
education system - and those responsible heads, teachers, parents, students and
reformers like Kenneth Baker and Andrew
Adonis - deserve our praise.
But the GCSE was conceived - and designed for a different age and a different world.
A time before majority participation in higher
education, a world where information
technology was in its infancy. When the GCSE
was first taught the school leaving age was still
16, state-planned economies dominated half
the globe and the internet was a work of
science fiction.
Now that we are raising the education
participation age to 18, now that nations which
were slow developers 20 years ago are
outstripping us economically, and now that
ways of learning have been so dramatically
transformed in all our lifetimes, it is right that we
reform our examination system.
Page 3
Because we know that the old model - the 80s
model - is no longer right for now. We know
that record increases in performance at GCSE
have not been matched by the same level of
improvements in learning - while pass rates
have soared we have fallen down
international education league tables.
We know that employers and academics have
become less confident in the worth of GCSE
passes – because they fear students lack the
skills for the modern workplace and the
knowledge for advanced study. We know that
children's achievements are not properly
recognised and that there has been grade
inflation.
And we know, most recently, and most
tellingly, that changes made to GCSEs,
specifically the introduction of modules and
the expansion of coursework, controlled
assessment, further undermined the credibility
of exams, leaving young people without the
rigorous education they deserved.
Only last week the OECD reported that in the
years up until 2010 our education system still
had not been reformed fast enough to keep
pace with the best in the world.
And critical to reform is ending an exam
system that has narrowed the curriculum,
forced idealistic professionals to teach to the
test and encouraged heads to offer children
the softest possible options.
We believe it is time for the race to the bottom
to end. We believe it is time to tackle grade
inflation and dumbing down. And we believe it
is time to raise aspirations and restore rigour
to our examinations.
We have already taken steps to improve
vocational qualifications in this Government.
Following on from the Wolf Review we have
ensured there is proper assessment, more
rigorous content and tighter quality controls on
vocational courses. And we’re reforming post16 funding to improve the education of those
taking vocational courses.
Today marks the next stage in radical exam
reform, to equip children for the 21st century
and to allow us to compete with the bestperforming education nations.
We want to ensure that modules - which
encourage bite-size learning and spoonfeeding, teaching to the test and gaming of the
system - go, once and for all.
We want to remove controlled assessment and
coursework from core subjects. These
assessment methods have – in all too many
cases – corrupted the fair testing of students.
We want to ensure that children are tested
transparently on what they - and they alone can do at the end of years of deep learning.
Where individual practical work needs to be
assessed in specific subjects, we will be
flexible. But we cannot have a system where
some students enjoy an in-built and unfair
advantage over others because of the exam
design.
We also want to end the current two-tier
division of exams into foundation and higher
tiers which condemn thousands of students to
courses which explicitly place a cap on
aspiration.
And – critically – we will end the competition
between exam boards which has led to a race
to the bottom with different boards offering
easier courses or assistance to teachers in a
corrupt effort to massage up pass rates.
We will invite exam boards to offer wholly new
qualifications in the core subject areas of
English, mathematics, the sciences, history,
geography and languages.
In each subject area only one exam board will
offer the new exams. The independent exams
regulator, will assess all the exams put forward
by the exams boards. The winner will be the
board which offers the course which best meets
the criteria, benchmarked to the world's best,
informed by academic expertise, and capable
of both recognising exceptional performance
and allowing the overwhelming majority of
students to have their work recognised and
graded fairly.
Page 4
We plan to call these new qualifications - in core
academic subjects - English Baccalaureate
Certificates - recognising that they are the
academic foundation which is the secure base
on which further study, vocational learning or a
satisfying apprenticeship can be built. Success
in English, maths, the sciences, a humanities
subject and a language will mean that the
student has the full English Baccalaureate.
Now some will argue that more rigorous
qualifications in these subjects will inevitably
lead to more students failing. But we believe that
fatalism is indicative of a dated mind-set; one
that believes in a distribution of abilities so fixed
that great teaching can do little to change.
And we know that great teaching is changing
lives even as we speak. We have the best
generation of teachers and headteachers we
have ever had. Their excellence combined with
reforms and improvements to education that this
Government are making through improved
teacher training, greater freedoms for
headteachers and the growth of academies and
free schools will mean more students will be
operating at a higher level.
So even as exams become more rigorous, more
students will be equipped to clear this higher
bar. Indeed, we are explicitly ambitious for all
our children – and we believe that over time we
will catch up with the highest performing nations
and a higher proportion of children will clear the
bar than now.
We expect that everyone who now sits a GCSE
should sit this new qualification. Of course there
will be some students who will find it difficult to
sit these exams, just as there are some students
at the moment who do not sit GCSEs today.
We will make special, indeed enhanced,
provision, for these students with their schools
required to produce a detailed record of their
achievement in each curriculum area which will
help them make progress subsequently - and
we anticipate some will secure EBacc
Certificates at the age of 17 or 18.
These reforms are radical - so we will consult
widely. Their introduction will require careful
preparation.
So we propose first teaching of new certificates
in English, maths and the sciences in
September 2015 with other subjects following.
And to ensure that the benefits of this more
rigorous approach to English Baccalaureate
subjects are felt across the whole curriculum,
we will ask Ofqual to consider how these new
higher standards can be used as a template for
judging and accrediting a new suite of
qualifications, beyond these subjects to replace
the entire suite of GCSEs.
The Primary languages
Awards
Last year’s winner in the French category
was Hertfordshire’s ‘On Track’ resource.
These changes will also require us to consider
afresh how we hold schools accountable - so
we will consult widely on replacements for
existing league tables - and we are determined
to have even better ways of recognising
schools which add value and which help the
poorest.
And we also wish to recognise the best
vocational as well as academic qualifications in
a fair and rigorous fashion.
Mr Speaker - after years of drift, decline and
dumbing down, at last we are reforming our
examination system to compete with the world's
best.
We are modernising our exam system so we
can have truly rigorous exams, competitive with
the best in the world, making opportunity more
equal for every child.
Which is why I commend these reforms to the
House.’’
French Gangnam style
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=FIfMTGv3nW8&feature=relmfu
You can use it in a variety of ways:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
les passes-temps
present tense verbs,
frequency words
Negation
partitives and prepositions (du/au)
Connectives
opinions or just a great starter
Page 5
Now it’s your turn to put us on the map
nationally!
Entries must be received by 31st December
for inclusion in the 2013 awards.
Tell them how you teach/learn languages in your
school and classroom. Each winning category
has resources appropriate to the language to
further support language learning in your school.
The judges are looking at the difference
language learning has made to your class,
school and/or community. The categories are
French, German, Welsh, EAL and Other,
including sign language.
To get you started, they have put some ideas on
the website of past entries and pictures of
previous winners in your category. You may
enter more than one category.
For more information and to register your
interest please contact
l.foxwell@languageawards.com or http://
www.languageawards.com/.