• Embed Doc
  • Copy Link
  • Readcast
  • Collections
  • CommentGo Back
Download
 
www.cilt.org.uk/commlangs
Issue 24 | Summer 2009
Teaching and celebrating community languages at primary
✽
Latest news from the Our Languages project
✽
Developing professional skills prior to initial teacher training
✽
Languages spoken in the UK population
✽
 
As reported in previous Bulletinissues, a consortium of organisationshas worked for 18 months on a DCSF(Department for Children, Schoolsand Families) project known as ‘OurLanguages’. It has been led by CILT,the National Centre for Languages,working in collaboration with SSAT,the Specialist Schools and AcademiesTrust, NRC, the National ResourceCentre for Supplementary Educationand SDSA, the School DevelopmentSupport Agency in Leicester. As wemove into the main disseminationphase in summer 2009, it is timely toupdate readers on some of the mostrecent achievements in this excitingand fast-moving project.
Clusters
In the first phase of the project therewere nine schools based in four majorcities involved in setting up the firstpartnerships. We decided to aim for amajor expansion of this collaborativeactivity to maximise the impact of OurLanguages on the pupil experienceof learning their mother tongue orheritage language, whether they werelearning in a mainstream setting orcomplementary/supplementary school.So, as a result, there are now 90 schoolsin Phase 2. Some are in satellite clusterslinked to the original four partnerships,some are working with the NRC onFamily Learning in Coventry, Londonand Blackburn and there is a newconcentration of schools in Leeds inthe toolkit trial (see Toolkit section).The Leicester cluster led by SDSA hascontinued.This expansion has brought into theproject a much wider range of languages.SSAT has been supporting manypartnerships in developing schemesof work and curriculum materials. Wewill be displaying these on the projectwebsite and know how much teachersappreciate access to models in thelanguage they teach. Local events havebeen held by the project schools to sharetheir experience of working together sowe hope you have had the opportunityto hear first-hand about the projectoutcomes.
Accreditation
There has been a focus throughout theproject on the importance of accreditingpupils’ skills in their mother tongueor heritage language. The website(
www.ourlanguages.org.uk
) has asection setting out different optionsthat include GCSEs, A2 and AS Levelexaminations,
 My Languages Portfolio
 and the Asset Languages scheme.Partner schools have been suppliedwith free copies of the Asset teacherassessment packs, whilst AssetLanguages gave presentations at allthe regional CPD events in September2008. We had a target of 1,200 pupilsgaining accreditation for their languagecompetence and are very pleased toannounce that this target was in factsuperseded.
Database
There are now about 1,000 schoolsregistered on our database which canbe seen in the Schools Directory sectionof the website. They are grouped bygovernment region. There is a wealth of information available on subjects taught,age of children, fees, accreditation of language competencies, involvementin Initial Teacher Training (ITT) andcontact details for each school.Most of these schools are fromthe complementary sector, but somemainstream schools, primary andsecondary, are featured, too. We arevery keen to complete this database byincluding every school in the countrythat teaches a community language soplease help! Send your details to SaraWickert and we can arrange to add yourschool.
sara.wickert@cilt.org.uk
E-conference
In each year of our project we have runan e-conference to give learners a voice– learners across our consortium schools
2
www.cilt.org.uk/commlangs
Welcome to Issue 24 of theCommunity Languages Bulletin.As well as the regular news andresources updates, you will find thelatest in our feature series on localand regional support for communitylanguages, with the spotlight onTower Hamlets Local Authority. Aschool in Tower Hamlets teachingBengali is also the focus of thelatest feature on primary curriculummodels. Do let us know of anysimilar activity in your locality.
As the Our Languages project entersits dissemination phase, we highlightrecent achievements, outlining howto access the support, guidance andresources developed. There is also anarticle from the British Council on itsinternational programmes of relevanceto community language teachers.An interesting feature this issue is anintroduction to the new occupationalstandards for intercultural skills andtheir potential for development of work-related qualifications. Thereis also an update on the supportfor teachers of learners aged 14–19as they navigate new delivery andaccreditation options.Four years on, we revisit thestatistics theme, using the newlanguages question in the AnnualSchools Census in England to informour understanding of the languagesspoken in the UK population.Our teacher training themecontinues, with a particular look thisissue at opportunities for colleagues todevelop and accredit professional skillsprior to applying for initial teachertraining.Finally, we are looking forward tothis year’s Community LanguagesNational Show in Southampton on 15July, where we will pick up on all thesethemes and more. Happy reading andhope to see you there!
Claire Dugard| 
Editor
Focus on …
Partnerships
Latest news from the OurLanguages project
 
3
www.cilt.org.uk/commlangs
Community
languagesIssue 24 | Summer 2009
3
www.cilt.org.uk/commlangs
Partnerships
and beyond. The first one in March 2008we ran as a blog on the CILT website, butthis year we have enjoyed the facility of a very smart ‘asset’ on the website thatprovided three questions for primarypupils and three for secondary students.There were 559 respondents and over1,600 individual answers. We intend toanalyse responses for publication andfindings will be disseminated at thisyear’s Community Languages NationalShow. My favourite is the answer ‘words’from a primary pupil in response tothe question ‘What do you like aboutlearning a language?’
Filming
This has been one of the most creativeand enjoyable aspects of the project. Wehave approached schools from both thecomplementary and mainstream sectorswith an open mind rather than pursuinga set agenda. The variety and richnessof these experiences has been a joy tocapture on film and refine into the formof video clips for the website.We filmed a Year 5 class in theborough of Enfield learning Turkishwhere the Turkish pupils acted as theteacher’s assistants; the Chinese schoolin Woking where there was an excitingdiet of culture following a morning’sfocus on literacy in Mandarin; bilingualsixth-formers in North London discussingtheir career aspirations and issues of identity; and young learners at thePalestinian school in Greenford learningabout their culture, religion and thepolitics of Gaza, as well as the Arabiclanguage.When editing, we have a range of audiences in mind: teachers, headteachers, policy-makers, advisers,teacher trainers and their trainees,academics and the general public. Thereis also an international audience forOur Languages so we aim for a balancedpicture overall. Certain themes emergestrongly: the benefits of bilingualism,the importance of the issue of identityfor young people in today’s Britain, thelink between language and culture andlanguage and religion, the commitmentof parents to helping their childrenachieve their full potential, communitycohesion and global citizenship.
Toolkit
This practical file entitled
 Partnershipsin Language and Culture
is designed tohelp schools from the two sectors worktogether in collaboration. It has alreadybeen piloted in some of the projectclusters whose comments we have triedto take on board. There are ten sectionsincluding information on Raisingachievement, Accreditation, FamilyLearning, Obtaining Qualified TeacherStatus (QTS) and Safeguarding children.In the first phase of the Our Languagesproject we commissioned over 40 casestudies and these are referenced in thetoolkit to illustrate the text. We hope itwill prove an informative, attractive andeasy-to-use resource. Sample letters areprovided to photocopy. The first 8,000copies will be provided free of charge sodo contact Sara Wickert if you would liketo be added to the mailing list.
sara.wickert@cilt.org.uk
Website
We hope you have noticed some newfeatures and some recent improvements.Our Languages is now registering over9,000 visits per month so we are keento provide our audience with up-to-dateand accurate information. There is nowa calendar function to highlight all theevents we promote, a new section onCareer development, more video clips, agreater variety of photos, clearer displayof the case studies and better labelling.The redesigned partner schools sectionhas a new map and lists members of allthe different clusters across the country.Each partner school can supply materialto be posted online, including visuals.
www.ourlanguages.org.uk
Posters
Packs of six posters will be availablesoon free of charge to accompany thetoolkit. They will feature differentscripts with young people from differentcommunities using their mother tongueas part of their daily lives – all with atouch of humour. The aim is to raise theself-esteem of bilingual pupils as onlythey will be in a position to unlock themeaning. Where there is no speakerof that language in a school, then thewebsite can provide the answer.
Regional events
This summer we will be visiting each of the nine government regions to celebratethe project and share our experienceswith teachers from the complementaryand mainstream sectors. We kick off in Southampton on 19 May with aninternational focus provided by ourkeynote speaker, Rachel Launay, fromthe British Council. Each event has adistinct local flavour and a differentguest speaker with a national profile.Registration is online and all theseevents are free of charge; we just takea cheque as a deposit. Early booking isrecommended to avoid disappointment.Southampton Tuesday 19 May 2009Norwich Tuesday 2 June 2009Newcastle Friday 5 June 2009Birmingham Wednesday 10 June 2009Manchester Friday 12 June 2009Nottingham Tuesday 16 June 2009Bristol Friday 19 June 2009London Wednesday 24 June 2009,16:45 – 19:30Leeds Friday 26 June 2009
What next?
Professor Angela Creese of the Universityof Birmingham, whose research interestis to explore language and identity inthe complementary sector, is writinga full evaluation of the Our Languagesproject which we will make available.For the next few months we willbe busy uploading website content,disseminating project outcomes roundthe country and, hopefully, taking sometime to reflect on how we build furtheron this legacy in order to continueto influence policy-makers and shapepublic opinion.
Sarah Cartwright| 
Programme Manager,Our Languages Consortium
sarah.cartwright@cilt.org.uk
of 00

Leave a Comment

You must be to leave a comment.
Submit
Characters: ...
You must be to leave a comment.
Submit
Characters: ...