Presdales School
Hoe Lane
Ware
Hertfordshire

Person in charge of project: Lesley Abbiss

Presdales School is a 1000-pupil girls' comprehensive school with sixth form. Upon achieving Language College status in 1996, the school decided to focus on developing the use of ICT in its foreign language teaching. The Section Bilingue project provides ICT teaching in French to all Year 7 pupils across the full range of abilities. Two 45-minute lessons of ICT are delivered in French per week.

Objectives of the project

• To teach graphics, word processing, databases and desktop publishing through the medium of French
• Graphics are used in the beginning to focus on the target language pupils require for classroom interaction
• Word processing follows when the pupils have enough vocabulary to make it a realistic exercise
• As pupils become more fluent, they can conduct surveys in target language to compile databases
• Desktop publishing is used to bring together their work and to develop more complex ICT and language skills

• It is believed to be the only project of its kind in the UK

• The quality of the work produced has proved that target language education and interaction does not hinder the acquisition of ICT skills
• Target language is used in a realistic situation and the language used is more personal
• There has been an increase in confidence and enthusiasm
• Improvements have been made amongst lower ability pupils in terms of fluency and pronunciation
• After Year 7, pupils continue to develop ICT knowledge and transfer it to other subjects, not just languages
• Dedicated language software allows pupils to develop language skills at their own pace which allows for a greater degree of differentiation in the classroom It is intended to extend the project to reflect new developments in ICT, such as e-mail and the Internet from which communication with schools abroad will be possible

• It is intended to extend the project to reflect new developments in ICT, such as e-mail and the Internet from which communication with schools abroad will be possible