Institution: St Augustine's Catholic High School

Context
St Augustine's Catholic High School has pupils aged 13-19 from the Redditch, Bromsgrove and surrounding Worcestershire areas. It aims to be a 'Christ-centred learning community committed to the development of the whole person.' It is a successful school and in the academic year 2007-2008 80 percent of the pupils achieved 5 or more passes at GCSE grades A* to C. The A Level results were also the highest in the county with 46.4 percent of A2 grades at A and B.

The Diploma in Engineering has been introduced into the school and other schools in the 'Forward Consortium Redditch', the largest consortium in the county. This is a new diploma and within it the students have to choose a specialism. The teacher in charge of the course is based at St Augustine's, and after a conversation about the value of French, the idea of running a French course as part of the Engineering Diploma was proposed using the new link forged with a Lyceé Scientifique et Technologique in Troyes. The link had been set up at a Climate Change Conference for A Level students of French in Paris.

Lines of Learning
The plan was to run French with the Diploma and involve Sixth Form Science students as St Augustine's is a Science and Maths Specialist College. Therefore it has developed into an Engineering project with French and Science (in particular Physics).

Student group
The Engineers are in Year 10. They are in two groups – one Foundation and one Higher and the total number is 24. These are students who would never have chosen French for GCSE for reasons such as lack of motivation and lack of interest.

Model for Languages in Additional/Specialist Learning
The students have one lesson of French per fortnight this year and the time will increase next year. The chosen course is Edexcel Short Course French in two skills, the coursework aspect of the two has the flexibility for the project and link with the lycée to be incorporated.

As part of the course, it was decided that the students needed to visit France. One reason for this was to motivate them and secondly to widen their experience within the Diploma. To do this, the school involved the Year 12 French students who were studying a range of other subjects for AS, including Physics and Chemistry, and who would act as hosts for a French group to come over to visit. There were also three Year 11 students who made up the 14 to complete the exchange group. The French students (also 14 in total) would then work with the Engineering students on a project in the UK. The return to France would therefore involve 24 Engineering students who would complete the project in Troyes. They would stay in full board accommodation with the accompanying staff and the Year 12 students would stay in the homes of the French students to complete the exchange. Read the article in the local newspaper.
 
Issues/tips
The exchange part of the diploma project was set up in a very short space of time and the preparation was very time-consuming. The MFL department took the load for the organisation and paperwork, at least in this case, as the Engineering teacher was inexperienced in setting up a visit abroad. She will agree that she has also learnt a lot in this process! There was funding available from the British Council, which was fantastic to keep the travel costs down, but this did incur lots of paperwork in great detail. The French side applying for the same grant had an easier time.

Impact on learners
When the French students arrived in the school on the first day there was a tremendous ‘buzz’ from all year groups. The French worked with Year 9 groups for 3 lessons, completing interviews and tours of the school, and some of the feedback from Year 9 students is that this lesson convinced them to choose a language for their options. Those studying Design went out on the visits with the French to the Morgan car company, which meant that quite a number of students were reached in a short space of time.

The Engineering group (Foundation) worked with the French for a day in the school workshops to produce a miniature casting for a champagne bottle (as Troyes is in the Champagne region). Casting is something the French school did not have facilities for. Therefore, the first step was completed here and, in March 2009, the group was in France finishing the product with the French machines. Meanwhile, the A Level students attended lessons such as French, Physics and Chemistry which allowed them to meet other students in the Lycée. 

Impact on teachers
The school runs a visit to Paris/Austria in alternate years in July where we take about 160 students and therefore lots of staff from all departments. This project targeted Engineering and Product Ddesign; an area rarely touched upon, so it has been a tremendous experience to see teaching colleagues at work. The project has also fostered the idea of a one-week teacher exchange between the Science department in the UK and the Technology department in Troyes; it is hoped that this will take place next year.

Future developments
As well as the planned teacher exchange, an email link with French classes is anticipated. Furthermore, we would like to visit Troyes University to discuss the possibility of students from the schools applying to a French university for their studies. Finally, it is hoped to develop the idea of Product Design into a Young Enterprise Scheme run by the Engineering Group and perhaps linking it to Functional Skills.

Author: Christine Marples. Head of MFL, St Augustine's Catholic High School