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Differentiation in KS4 at the Bourne Community College
Video clips to follow soon.
Context
The Bourne Community College is now a flourishing, mixed and inclusive College on the borders of West Sussex and Hampshire. It has 700 students and 28 Partner Primary schools. It is situated in an area identified as part of the south Coast deprivation with pockets of affluence. The school also links with an Army base on Thorney Island.
Margaret Eva, Head of Bourne Community College
"The impact across the Bourne of a dynamic and inspirational MFL Team is both tangible and measurable. Our school has become unique and internationally focussed. Lively and interactive teaching and learning has been fundamental to developments and increased enjoyment of language learning. Regular video-conferencing, together with exchange visits to partner primary schools and schools internationally, has heightened students’ awareness of the wider world and, as a result, students have become more globally aware” - Margaret Eva, Headteacher.
Key objectives
To provide differentiated activities in GCSE French and Spanish to cater for students of varying levels of ability. This is part of a much wider strategy to ensure that all students can access the languages curriculum at their own level. Students are also entered for Alternative Accreditation in KS4 as a means of differentiation by offering NVQs in French and Spanish at level 2 to D/E grade students. In Year 9 students have also taken an Entry Level Certificate course. Read about the NVQ course at the Bourne.
How the lesson was organised
The two groups filmed in Year 10 (one French, one Spanish) are GCSE students, specifically chosen to study at this level as a result of their KS3 levels and linguistic ability. All have studied French at KS3 and a few have studied Spanish for one lesson per week in year 8/9. In both groups the girls are in the majority (the Spanish group has 4 boys and 15 girls and the French group has 10 Boys and 19 Girls) however the boys tend to be more confident orally (which may in part be due to their involvement in the Raising Boys achievement).The Spanish group is composed of a few students who were allowed to give up French and study Spanish as their main MFL at KS4 based on their ability or because they had moved from another school where they had studied a little Spanish at KS3 Both groups are well motivated and positive about their language learning and being part of the Bourne.
In this lesson which was delivered in both Spanish and French, the students were working on the topic of illnesses and visiting the doctor.
In all language classes staff ensure there are a variety of activities and that there is always extension work for the more able. Teachers take care to differentiate for the weaker ones to enable them to access the material being delivered- see the examples of differentiated work sheets in French for this lesson. Model answers or texts are provided which students can work on or adapt. For the productive skills of speaking and writing the MFL team ensures there are always open ended activities which are mostly created in-house to ensure they reach the higher levels.
Worksheets in French from this lesson
Listening transcript with gapfill
Listening exercise with grid
Vocabulary sheet
Further top tips to enable students to achieve their potential at GCSE:
- Good use is made of foreign language assistants to support the students with their oral tasks and to prepare for their oral exams. Some students work in small groups with the assistant in class and others in a small study area outside depending on their level of confidence and competence.
- Weekly after school revision sessions for GCSE oral revision and coursework catch up are held. These enable students in need of additional support to receive the help that they need to achieve their full potential.
Results
The Bourne is now a highly successful centre of learning and results have grown from 24% A*-C Grades in 2001 to 80% A*-C in 2008. In languages, results have grown from 24% A-C grades at GCSE in 2004 to 58% in 2008. Now all students study a language up to the age of 16 and from year 8 can study two languages.
“A large part of the success of languages in our school has been due to the support of our dynamic Headteacher, Margaret Eva, who has been prepared to allow us to take risks and choose new approaches and courses appropriate to our students to enable them to achieve their full potential” Yvonne Watkins, Director of Specialism, MFL.
Future developments
Staff at the school use textbooks, video clips, revision guides, and resources online, or shared resources eg Eurobourne. ICT is used regularly and from September 2008 the languages faculty will have shared access to a new Languages and Communications Centre with English.
Author: Yvonne Watkins, Director of Specialism, MFL
