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Introduction
| Overview
| Becoming an LC
| CILT support
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CILT-SLC case study |
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Imberhorne School |
Vocational |
The motivating effects of a vocational approach
Imberhorne School is an 11-18 mixed comprehensive school situated in the town of East Grinstead in West Sussex. In 1997, Imberhorne - supported by a wide range of sponsors, including the British Airports Authority London Gatwick, Vektor Education, British Airways, Technology Colleges Trust, Research Machines, Sussex Enterprise, Rentokil, and Reed Information Services - sought and achieved Specialist School status as a Language College. The school is on a split site and pictured above is the lower school site, for pupils in years 7-9. Since becoming a Language College, the school has done much to raise awareness of the importance of languages in the workplace and many of its pupils have achieved various vocational qualifications, including NVQ languages, GNVQ Language Units and British Airways Flag Awards.
The Languages and the World of Work event
For four years, from 1999 – 2002 the school hosted an event entitled “Languages and the World of Work” as part of its outreach to the wider community. The day, aimed at pupils in year 9 invited from over 20 schools all around the county of West Sussex was supported by local businesses and involved language teachers from Imberhorne and several other West Sussex schools. The event consisted of eleven workshops, each of which was led by a different company. This meant that eleven year 9 pupils were invited from each secondary school in the county and each pupil attended a different workshop. The day was split into morning and afternoon sessions of an equal length. Pupils from schools furthest away attended in the morning and the more local schools attended in the afternoon.
In the workshops, the pupils worked with the representatives from each company and language teachers on exciting activities simulating authentic tasks using foreign language skills which are carried out in the organisations concerned. For example, in a workshop headed by the company Glaxo SmithKline, the pupils used computers to design toothpaste packaging in French and German for a new brand of toothpaste aimed at children. Complete beginners in Italian donned British Airways uniforms and worked with cabin crew from the airline to produce announcements in Italian and to serve passengers their inflight food and drinks. In a workshop led by the emergency rescue service Europ Assistance, pupils used their language skills to solve the problems of holidaymakers in distress on the telephone and by fax. In another workshop, pupils enjoyed the expertise of a professional theatre director who helped them to produce a range of interesting advertisements in French which were video-recorded and shown in the plenary session at the end.
Pupils in the British Airways workshop, March 2002
In the third and fourth years of the event, students from the sixth form at the school worked with foreign language assistants to produce a website featuring all of the workshops. As the day progressed, a team of students was busy with digital cameras in each workshop, capturing the excitement of the event. The website was live by the end of the day and each participant was given the address on departure so that they could look at the site that evening.
Working with business partners in this way helped to show participants the relevance of what they are learning in languages in relation to future employment. This year, a recently designated language college in the county is taking the event forward. A file of materials entitled “Languages and the World of Work” designed to enable other schools to run a similar event or to use these activities in the classroom have been produced and can be obtained from West Sussex County Council, INSET Office (01243) 777452 or e-mail AIS.ED@westsussex.gov.uk.
The languages carousel
Many of the activities from the “Languages and the World of Work” day have been incorporated into the curriculum for year 9 in the exciting “Languages Carousel” which is a regular weekly hour for every pupil in the year group. This carefully planned carousel of activities each lasting five weeks gives pupils the opportunity to experience taster sessions of new languages such as Arabic or Japanese as well as vocational activities such as those undertaken in the event mentioned previously. The school received a National Languages for Export Award from the Department of Trade and Industry for this innovative carousel of activities.
Vocational Language Qualifications offered at Imberhorne
For many years, students in the Sixth Form at Imberhorne have had the opportunity of following an NVQ portfolio-building course in French, German, Spanish or Italian. French and German are offered at Levels 2 and 3 and Spanish and Italian at Level 1. These courses have proven popular with students of all abilities, offering a valuable additional qualification for those following AVCE courses in Travel and Tourism or at level 3, as an alternative to A level study for the most able. The course used is one written by language teachers from around West Sussex, including several of those at Imberhorne and is also available from the West Sussex INSET office. A CD-ROM of vocational language activities, the Grid Plus CD Rom, was also produced by West Sussex language teachers, including a member of Imberhorne staff, and is ideal for use with this and other vocational courses.
Many students in years 9-11 at the school have achieved GNVQ language units in recent years. This examined course has been used successfully with students of all abilities at Foundation and Intermediate levels. A very small number of lower attaining linguists in year 11 have found this course very motivating and have achieved excellent results when sitting the examination as an alternative to a conventional GCSE language.
This year, for the first time, the whole of year 9 is working towards an NVQ at Level 1 in their second foreign language. They are following a course, specially written by a teacher at the school for this younger age group. The school has entered into discussions with an awarding body to produce web-based materials for this course which will be available to all schools wishing to offer an NVQ in KS3 or KS4. There are also a small number of students, who are studying for a double award GCSE in Leisure and Tourism who are following this same NVQ course alongside their vocational GCSE.
The Future
In addition to all of this work, Gill Beckett, LEA based AST and Associate Modern Languages Adviser and Associate Head of Languages at the school, who has been involved in all of the work mentioned, is also working closely with an awarding body on the development of a new vocational language qualification. It is proposed that this is called a GCVE (General Certificate in Vocational Education) and that it is offered in French, German and Spanish. The course, which will be the equivalent of a short course GCSE offering the full range of grades is to be language set in the vocational contexts of Travel and Tourism, Business or ICT. It is hoped to offer a pilot of this new qualification from September 2003.
Gill Beckett, The Imberhorne School and Language College
