Institution: Hele's School

Context 
Hele's is a 1,360 pupil co-educational comprehensive school on the edge of Plymouth and Dartmoor, providing for the needs of pupils aged 11-18. It is maintained by the Local Authority and is a government designated Language College, with a second specialism in Maths and Computing. In 2006, Hele’s was identified as a high achieving school by the DfES and awarded a third specialism, Vocational Specialist Status.

Key objectives
To offer real situations through links with local business for students to develop their language skills in line with the vocational specialism.

How the programme is organised
At Hele’s, languages are an important and integral part of the curriculum. All students study either French or German from Year 7 and continue with this, their core language, up to GCSE level. In Years 8 and 9 they take a further hour of languages in which  Spanish and Mandarin Chinese are introduced, which can be taken as optional GCSEs. As of September 2006, all students studying French are following the Applied French GCSE course in either the Media and Communication or Leisure and Tourism contexts. Students have responded very positively to the course as they perceive it as relevant to their lives and where they live and find the content interesting.

An important difference between the Applied GCSE and the conventional GCSE is the emphasis on developing language skills within a real situation and for real purposes. This can be enhanced through links with local businesses and learning visits to contextualise students' learning.

'The trip has helped me with my work experience choices as well as my French.' A learner

Students in Y10 who were studying French as a tutor group exclusively through the target language since Y7 and began the GCSE course early in Y9, have been involved in a project with Brittany Ferries to enhance their GCSE coursework. The group are following the Leisure and Tourism context and the link was developed through their work on travel and transport combined with jobs in leisure and tourism.

The students visited Brittany Ferries offices in Plymouth where they had a tour of the premises and listened to a presentation by the General Manager and two employees about the company, the types of roles that exist and how languages are used on a daily basis. One day later, the students travelled overnight with Brittany Ferries to Roscoff. At the main terminal they were welcomed and received a tour and presentation given completely in French but targeted to their level. This was followed by a visit into Roscoff and some research into the town’s facilities for tourists, then a 'business lunch' at a local restaurant. They caught the afternoon ferry back and the students interviewed employees in French, with questions they had chosen and prepared themselves prior to departure, to find out about different jobs aboard the ferry.

On their return, the students worked with a foreign language assistant at school who is a former employee of Brittany Ferries to discuss what they had learned. They then read advertisements for different summer jobs aboard the ferry and wrote a letter of application as their coursework. The students’ motivation to write their letters was undoubtedly enhanced by the learning visit. Later in the term, the students prepared for an assessed speaking interaction as part of the GCSE. Their task was to make a reservation in a restaurant for a large party, discussing details, dietary requirements etc. using their experience of the lunch in Roscoff to help them visualise the situation. All students in the group rose to the occasion and performed very well.

Results/effect
The opportunity to link with business and set up learning visits has contributed to increased motivation.

'The visit made me see how much French is used and made me want to learn more.' A learner.

Future developments
'Our work on the Applied French GCSE contributed to our successful bid for Vocational College status in 2006. In addition to this, our business link projects and innovative ways of teaching French at GCSE have now rolled out to German classes and we are now aiming to develop more cross-curricular link projects across the school.'

A revised scheme of work for the Media and Communication contexts is being implemented, as well as working as a department to continue developing coursework and interaction tasks that the students can relate to and therefore succeed in completing. Business links are growing and they have several other projects they are working on with different classes, including work with Plymouth City Museum and Language Farm.

'As an SSAT Lead Practitioner, I delivered INSET for teachers interested in the Applied GCSE and developing business links, hosted aboard a Brittany Ferries ship in port at Plymouth on 8 February 2008, with a large turnout and will be sending details of future training and developments for the GCSE to members of the Applied French network. For more information contact Sarah Ward.

Author: Sarah Ward, Deputy Head of Department and Lead Practitioner for Applied French.