Key Questions for Students

Rachel Do you enjoy learning languages? All of the children said yes and were keen to talk about them. What do you enjoy the most? The children agreed that the fun activities and games that they get to do were the best part. Least? They didnt like the tests they have to do because they are not fun and can be hard. Nahuel Would you like to have Spanish more often? Why? Mixed responses: Most would prefer more engaging approaches i.e. games, word searches and puzzles particularly for lesson starters. Why do you think you learn Spanish at school? If you go to Spain I will be able to talk to the people there in their own language rather than expected them to speak to me in English. How can you go to a country and not know much about their language? What jobs do you think you could get where Spanish would be helpful? Spanish teacher, doctor. (I think there was a lack of awareness at the opportunities languages can bring). Andrew Did you learn any languages in Primary? If so did that help you learn Spanish? 2 students learned French, 2 Spanish. All said they just learned a bit of vocabulary in primary and that they were excited now that they were learning how to speak in complete sentences. Even the French students said that learning French in primary helped them with their pronunciation and learning of words in Spanish in secondary. Do you think that it would be useful to use you Spanish in other lessons or do you think that it would make those lessons more difficult? NoIt wouldnt be relevant to the subject. MaybeYou could understand some of the ideas in that subject, and then you can practice your Spanish alsobut then some things would be hard to understand, and you couldnt learn that subject well.

Key Questions for teacher

Develop 3 key questions for your school mentor and a small number of Year 7 pupils exploring what you consider to be important aspects of practice in the context of transition from KS2 to KS3. You may note these questions and responses either in your learning log or in your Exploring Real World Primary Languages journal. At least one of these questions should focus on Languages. For example, you might like to explore the following questions with both teachers and pupils:

Teacher: Are Year 7 pupils streamed or set for Languages in Year 7, and on what basis?

The Year 7 children are not banded according to their language. Instead, they are banded according to their English and Mathematics results. They keep this band for the rest of the year. Even if the child is excelling they will not be moved up due to timetabling issues with English and Mathematics.

Teacher: In what ways do practitioners differentiate teaching and learning in Languages?

The level of vocabulary that they are expected to learn. Questioning Outcomes - results Success criteria - differentiated steps to success. - good children are not capped on their learning. HAs often become the mentors of the other children. Often strong speakers, who might benefit from a similar first language, will focus on developing other skills, like writing. EAL pupils are keen learn. Those who speak a European language find Spanish more accessible.

Teacher: How do EAL pupils approach the learning of a subsequent language in a classroom environment?

Those who speak Urdu struggle as they find fewer links with their language and Spanish. In lessons, they will be trying to learn English and Spanish at the same time and this can be challenging for them.

Visuals are used. Repeating the writing they have done. Teacher: What is the purpose of learning at home, and to what extent to pupils engage with this? How popular do Languages appear to be at the beginning of Year 7, and does this change during KS3? What might the possible reasons for this be? What can the primary school do to ensure that learning is meaningful, and also effective preparation for future learning beyond KS2? Its difficult we want to focus on that. Keen students will willingly do extra homework. Diff to monitor.

Does popularity change throughout KS3. GCSE uptake is high this year - they value the language. If you can make it accessible. There should be more communication. In primary we are going to teach them to level three. What each one is doing. If you did know what works for them. Lots have never done a language.

In the past we had a language expert to differentiate the children. Child will help others once they had finished in class. Peer support. Doing questions that are useful in English and aim to translate. What can the secondary school do to ensure that prior learning is celebrated and built upon? Encourage them if they have the languages - applying what you know. I like, well how can you say I dont like. Language expert helped. How do you assess? Homework - listening, reading and writing test. Its not easy to do speaking - last year we had the British Council assist but this year there is a lack of funding for this.. Effectively using others members of staff. Independence is a key skill.

How might primary and secondary colleagues work together to ensure progression and continuity in learning?

How well prepared are children to learn at KS3? Refer also to learning patterns and models, whole-school and classroom environments, location and travel, general guidance and

looking after, the differences in life at primary school and at secondary school, and the responsibilities Year 7 children may have that they did not have only a few weeks earlier in Year 6. How best can we prepare our Year 6 children for these changes?

Accuracy versus fluency - They try to focus more on fluency in class and attempt to fix errors later on. They dont want to shake a students confidence by correcting their mistakes all the time.