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CILT-SLC case study	CILT
Shene School, London	Languages Ladder

 

Asset Languages in Practice

Context

Shene School is a London mixed comprehensive 11-16 Language College, first designated in 2003. As with many schools, boys’ underachievement is an issue and languages are neither the most popular nor the most highly achieving of subjects. In 2006 our whole school A*-C was 42% and pupils gained 23% A*-C in French, 55.5% in German and 46% in Italian. 23% of pupils have learning difficulties.

As a Language College, we are encouraged by the DfES / SSAT to put the majority of pupils through GCSE. As the context of our intake means that GCSE is not appropriate for all pupils however, we have looked to other accreditations to support some of our pupils. In the past, Entry Level Certificates were used for lower ability pupils in Year 11, but we felt that this was not challenging enough for the pupils. We therefore looked in 2005/2006 towards Asset Languages for those KS4 pupils who would historically have taken Entry Level Certificates.

Innovation

While we continue to teach all four skills to our KS4 Asset Languages pupils, we have chosen to assess the pupils through Asset Languages only in the passive skills of Reading and Listening as the other skills are the ones which have been the most challenging to these lower ability pupils in the past.

In addition to using Asset Languages for lower ability KS4 pupils, we have also decided to use it for English as an Additional Language (EAL) pupils at KS4, for new intake pupils at KS4 where they have not studied a language in their previous school, and for KS4 pupils starting a language from scratch at KS4.

We have been able to target gifted linguists who are unable to commit to studying two languages at KS4 within the curriculum, but who are keen to continue with or start a new language in their own time, with support from the MFL teachers, but not to the extent that all four skills could be learned sufficiently for them to take a GCSE.

We have also taken the decision to enter Year 9 pupils for Asset Languages at Preliminary and Breakthrough Grades at the same time as the SATs exams. The reasons for this include raising the profile of MFL within the school and amongst the pupils; ensuring that KS3 Dual Linguists have an accreditation in both languages studied at KS3 (particularly if they do not go on to continue with two languages at KS4); and giving KS3 pupils something to aim for at a crucial time in their education.

The Year 9 Dual Linguists (ca. 50% of the year group) will be assessed in both languages at Preliminary Grades in Reading and Listening, and Year 9 Single Linguists will be assessed in French at Breakthrough Grades in Reading and Listening. This is happening for the first time in May 2007 and therefore we are awaiting results. Class teachers and pupils have been given the opportunity to change the level of entry where this is not appropriate for the individual pupil.

What we did

For the first year of trialing Asset Languages with the Year 11 pupils, we identified those pupils who were likely to gain a low F, G or below at GCSE and informed parents/carers in writing, giving them the option to move their child back into a GCSE group. Of the 34 targeted pupils, only one pupil chose to continue with the GCSE course.

In the first year we entered the Year 11 pupils for assessment at Breakthrough Grade. With our current Year 11 (now in the second year of trialing Asset Languages), we entered the identified pupils for the Breakthrough Grade when they were in Year 10, with the aim of many of them being entered this year (in Year 11) for the Preliminary Grade.

We amended our existing KS4 Schemes of Work to cover the content, which is essentially the same as the basic content at GCSE, and the grammatical concepts, again, essentially the same as foundation requirements at GCSE. An example module is attached below;

Module 1 : Self & Family (timescale: six-weeks)

About this unit	Grammar and Linguistic Structures
Content: Information about self, family & friends Greetings and responding to greetings Asking for & giving personal details incl. forms Describing people Character and personal relationships Describing people Expressing preferences, feelings & opinions House and home, including helping at home Expressing preferences, feelings & opinions Describing accommodation Describing objects Daily routine Asking & giving information on routines and habits Giving times Food and drink at home and at school Talking about food Buying food	Further Outcomes: Understanding and producing simple narratives. Agreement/ disagreement and contradictions Grammar Structures: Adjectives: position, agreements, comparative/superlative and possessive Quantifiers and intensifiers Pronouns: all subject/personal, reflexive, relative (qui/que), interrogative (qui, que), direct and indirect pronouns and order Verbs: regular and irregular forms of verbs, incl. reflexives (daily routine), all persons of the verb, sing. & pl., present, perfect (last weekend activities/chores), immediate future (weekend plans) Negatives (ne…pas, ne…jamais, ne…que, ne…personne) Prepositions Conjunctions (parce que, car, mais…) Numbers, dates, time & time indicators (souvent, de temps en temps…)
Resources: Métro 4; Modules 2, 3, 8, 9; Jeunes Francophones; Extra! Independent resources	ICT Opportunities: PowerPoint for oral presentation
Core assessment tasks: Weekly vocabulary tests	Cross curricular links & ECM: Citizenship; Being healthy; Enjoying & Achieving; Making a Contribution

 

What the pupils achieved and how they felt

In the first year of trialing Asset Languages, of the Year 11 pupils being assessed, 54% of the (28) French pupils and 100% of the (four) German pupils gained certificates in either one or both skills. The pupils were pleased with their results, felt sufficiently challenged and felt they had achieved something.

In the second year of trialing Asset Languages, the pupils in Year 10 were less enthusiastic and therefore also less successful.

Of those who sat the exams in Year 10, 100% of French pupils, 100% of German pupils and 54% of Spanish pupils [who were also all ab initio pupils] gained at least one certificate at Breakthrough Grade.

We believe the reasons for low attendance and therefore presumably low motivation include the fact that these pupils have not been able to compare these assessments to the previously used (and less challenging) Entry Level Certificate (ELC); in addition there are a number of challenging pupils within this cohort. Now that they are in Year 11, some pupils are keen to gain the certificates whereas there are still some pupils who are not bothered if they gain certification or not. These pupils would not be working any harder towards an (unattainable) GCSE.

The EAL pupils and gifted linguists are very keen to do well and are pleased to have the opportunity to gain certificates and are aware that a good grade at GCSE would be unattainable for them at this stage.

It is too early to tell how well the other results and innovations will go.

Our next steps

The Year 9 pupils will have something to show for their first three years of language learning. We would like to bring mock exams forward (for dual linguists at least) before they have to choose their options, with the aim of increasing their confidence in their abilities and therefore hopefully increasing the number of Dual Linguists at KS4.

Specialist status and partnerships

As a Language College, we have extended the use of Asset Languages now to cater further for the needs within our outreach partner schools and community links. We aim to be using Asset Languages for the following groups of learners; primary pupils at Breakthrough grade; learners of community languages (both adults and pupils in enrichment activities); secondary partner dual linguist pupils (where we are also providing extra lessons through our foreign language assistants) and out-of-hours language learners (i.e. pupils learning Spanish or Japanese in extra-curricular time).

Points to consider

OCR is still not in a position to provide grade boundaries for past papers, which makes it difficult to use existing papers for mock or practice.

The gap between Breakthrough and Preliminary Grades is quite large and we have found that pupils gaining a solid Grade 3 at Breakthrough Grade struggle to gain at Grade 4 at Preliminary Grade.

Overall

We have been most pleased with the opportunities for progression at assessment from absolute basic to more advanced language learning. The flexibility of assessment opportunities throughout the academic year is also a plus, as is the option to focus on different language learning skills as suits the learners.

We have recently had a two-day MFL subject audit and were praised for the innovative ways in which we are using Asset Languages as an alternative route for various groups of pupils;

“Good use is being made of accreditation through the Languages Ladder. It is being used appropriately not just with lower attaining pupils but with pupils with specific needs such as pupils who are speakers of  English as an Additional Language (EAL) and those who are gifted linguists” OFSTED survey inspection, 28th February 2007.