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Introduction
| Overview
| Becoming an LC
| CILT support
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Primary MFL and Language Colleges - Working in partnership
In 2003 CILT launched a project, Early Language Learning and Language Colleges (ELL-LC) that included 70 Language Colleges, each working with its family of schools in order to teach languages successfully to young learners.
There are now over 200 SLCs and their primary partners involved in supporting and extending excellent provision in primary MFL. We held our last annual conference for the ELL-LC project on 4th December 2007. The focus was the crucial area of building training and support networks in order to develop quality and sustainability in Primary Languages. The conference brought together representatives from CILT, teachers in SLCs and primary teachers.
Primary and secondary teachers working in partnership have been able to build on strategies and techniques from the National Literacy Strategy in order to develop pupils' awareness of language and the links that exist between English and other languages. Even very young learners of the foreign language quickly become aware of linguistic patterns and conventions and can be creative and independent in the language.
What does this mean for the Language College? It means that pupils arriving in Year 7 come with enthusiasm and a good grasp of language learning skills. They are used to listening to the foreign language and know the need for good pronunciation and clear speaking. They are happy to work in pairs and groups and are not self-conscious when it comes to role-play and performing in the foreign language. These skills are beneficial to other curriculum areas too!
Project partners have been working in regional clusters in partnership with CILT Language Teaching Advisers and through a dedicated electronic forum, LCnet. Advice for Language Colleges running their own regional event focussing on primary languages is available on the SLC support pages.
If you would like further information about how to get involved in the next phase of this project please email Eriona.Brading@cilt.org.uk
ELL-LC project progress reports
Schools involved in this project can access the ELL-LC reporting form by opening the RTF document below and saving to their own computer/disk. It can then be filled in electronically and sent as an e-mail attachment to Eriona.Brading@cilt.org.uk
Alternatively, print off the form and send it by post to Eriona Brading at CILT, the National Centre for Languages, 3rd Floor, 111 Westminster Bridge Road, London SE1 7HR.
ELL-LC phase 6 progress report form (rtf, 205KB)
SLCs involved in the project were required to submit one report due on 21 May 2008
To showcase current activities, we've selected recent progress reports to highlight the SLC and primary partnership.
- Bournemouth School: phase 5 progress report (doc, 52KB). Bournemouth School is a selective grammar school for boys with a sixth form. It acquired SLC status in 2000. It has been part of the ELL-LC project for many years and the most recent progress report includes details of offering Mandarin and Japanese taster sessions to children in the local primary schools.
- Broughton Business and Enterprise College, Preston: phase 5 progress report (doc, 57KB). BBEC gained a second specialism in languages in 2006. Despite being new to the ELL-LC project, a report (doc, 37KB) written in November 2006 shows how quickly they have developed a local cluster of schools. The MFL department is kind enough to share a questionnaire (doc, 26KB) they've used with primary colleagues and a handout (doc, 30KB) about games involving languages.
- Campion School, Northampton: phase 5 progress report (doc, 55KB). An SLC since 1997, Campion has been providing MFL support to its cluster of primary schools since 2005. The report touches on the difficulty posed by its rural setting.
- Southend High School for Girls: phase 5 progress report (doc, 66KB). SHSG has been working on PMFL with another language college, Southend High School for Boys in an 'Excellence Cluster' since the end of 2004. Over the last two years French has been rolled out in all primary schools in the local authority. In 2007 a Regional Support Group was set up in Southend.
- St Michael's Catholic Grammar School, London: phase 5 progress report (doc, 49KB). St Michael's became an SLC in 2006. New to the project in phase 5, they have developed their own Scheme of Work for French in year 1 and are working closely with three feeder primary schools.
More activities/reports from phase 6 of this project coming soon.
Further links
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The National Advisory Centre on Early Language Learning |
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The training zone for KS2 languages |
