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Organisational Issues
Teachers need the commitment of the leadership group as careful consideration needs to be given to organisational issues.
Staffing and timetabling
- Staff need to be encouraged and motivated to be involved. The school needs to be proactive in developing the confidence and capacity of teachers in the school.
- Teachers need to be given the opportunity to attend any INSET on CLIL and to visit other schools adopting this approach.
- Timetabling needs to allow for the teachers involved to teach the same groups and for CLIL lessons to be accommodated into the timetable.
- Teachers need to have blocks of planning time to plan effectively and create resources.
- Non-linguists should be given the opportunity to enhance and develop their linguistic abilities through a range of training opportunities, offered internally or externally.
- Funding needs to be made available for the creation of resources and the purchasing of any suitable published resources and bilingual dictionaries.
- Appointing a Foreign Language Assistant will provide invaluable support.
- Teachers involved should be encouraged to track pupil progress, keeping data to ‘prove’ that CLIL works. Student voice should also be a regular feature. This will help convince other departments to get on board.
- In the early days it is important to be realistic about what is manageable. It may be better to start with one group or to adopt a modular approach in the first instance.
Parental concerns
Parents may be concerned about the notion of CLIL. This will probably be the result of parents being unsure of exactly what CLIL is. You will need to make the case to parents, reassuring them that pupils’ progress in the ‘content’ subject will not be hindered by studying through the target language. A presentation to parents is an effective way of communicating with parents and allaying any concerns they may have.
Links with the target language country
A link with the target language country will enhance pupils’ learning. It may also provide the opportunity for teachers to visit the target language country to enhance their linguistic skills. Teacher exchanges are also worth pursuing.
