Context
Hove Park in East Sussex is the only school to have been awarded language college status in Brighton and Hove. It serves a community with a range of backgrounds and ethnicities and its catchment includes some socially deprived areas. As an indicator, around 20% of students receive free school meals.

With a successful sixth form college, the school has a broad range of courses for students aged 11 – 18 and has a strong and well recognised international dimension. The ethos of the school is underpinned with a strong policy of inclusion.

The languages department is large, with over 15 full time staff, and delivers 5 languages at key stages 3 and 4 (including Chinese which is also integrated into the ASDAN programme). The college is delivering various alternative accreditations at present, including NVQ French and Spanish, Applied French, ASDAN International Award and Certificate of Personal Effectiveness (CoPE), as well as traditional GCSEs.

Key objectives
To introduce the ASDAN International Award and ASDAN CoPE programme to around 200 students in year 8 and 9 in order to give them accreditation at the end of KS3. Students also follow a traditional modern language course, building on their learning of either French, Italian, Spanish or German.

How the programme is organised
Students follow the ASDAN programmes as opposed to taking two languages as it is felt that this best supports the language learning needs of the students.

For the International Award, students must undertake 12 challenges, totalling 60 hours, to complete a successful portfolio. The challenges Hove School have created include exploring fairtrade, researching global warming and writing a dual language children’s book.

CoPE (Certificate of Personal Effectiveness)
The Certificate of Personal Effectiveness (CoPE) is in many ways a continuation of the International Award as it allows students to go much deeper into the challenges they must complete. Six challenges at 10 hours each are required to combine CoPE with the International Award to achieve a level 2 qualification. The first of the six challenges selected by Hove Park School is to create a magazine, the focus of which is 'working with others'.  Students must work in groups of three or more and show evidence of identifying and distributing tasks, setting deadlines and reviewing each others’ contributions.

Evidence of success
There is an opportunity to give a forum to those students who have deep connections to other nations and whose first language is not English. They are a massive resource and offer other students real insight into life in other countries and cultures as well as acknowledging the value of these students’ particular histories and heritage.

The potential for formal recognition in terms of a good level 2 qualification is strong. The successful candidate can receive the points equivalent of a B at GCSE – already in year 9. This of course benefits the learner by aiding their access to level 3 courses in post 16 education, but also increases the likelihood of achieving 5 A *- C grades for those students vulnerable to falling short. The potential impact on overall school performance is therefore very positive.

Language teachers at Hove Park have broadened their skills through delivering the ASDAN programme and have had the opportunity to experience a different classroom dynamic than in traditional language lessons. The debates and conversations between teachers and learners allow both parties to bring more of their personal life experience to the fore and develop a more personal understanding of each other. This helps to foster positive teacher/pupil relationships and supports an excellent climate for learning.

With the school’s strong International Dimension they have links to various countries worldwide. As one of very few language colleges delivering Chinese at KS 4 they currently benefit from having a Chinese assistant from Beijing. The assistant is delivering two lessons a fortnight to the  ASDAN International Award students, covering Chinese language (Mandarin) and culture.

'I loved working on my children’s book.' A pupil on the course

Future developments
The first students to follow the ASDAN programme will complete their portfolios in June and at this point  the successes and areas for development will be reviewed. What Hove looks forward to is developing an ASDAN magazine designed, edited and written by the students. With whole school distribution it would raise the course’s profile significantly and give students real life practical experiences such as costing, organising printing and coordinating a team. This would embrace the skills-based nature of the programme’s assessment criteria and would give an enduring sense of achievement to the students.

Also the college would like more trips to be organised to build a sense of what action is taking place in the local community regarding recycling, charity work and other areas.

Author: Jamie Fries, Hove Park School