Institution: Hele's School

‘Language teachers at Hele’s have gained the opportunity to pilot an exciting and innovative GCSE and to offer our students a course we believe helps them prepare for the world of work today. Our work is contributing to the development of a vocational website for the school and impacting on the work of the school vocational learning working party.’ Sarah Ward.

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 & Computing. In 2006, Hele’s was identified as a high achieving school and awarded a third specialism, Vocational Specialist Status.

Key objectives
To offer a GCSE course relevant to students and 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.

'I have learned that languages are used a lot in work so it is useful to know another language. Languages are especially useful if you want a job that involves travelling to a different country' A learner

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. There are many links and parallels between the two courses, but students benefit from developing more independent language learning skills through the Applied Course. The format of the examinations requires the students to develop their skills differently, for example techniques are taught to do listening activities on computers where the students control the activity within a specific time, as well as modelling listening as a whole class activity. Similarly the speaking interactions give the students more scope to develop the conversation in a way that they find interesting than the conventional role plays. They need to develop skills to think for themselves, manipulate the language and respond spontaneously rather than relying on learning chunks of language to say from memory.

'I would advise teachers working with such groups of learners to see Applied French as an opportunity to teach GCSE language and structures in a way that is relevant and interesting to students and to use their existing resources creatively within the applied contexts as well as developing new ones. They could also become part of the network of teachers of Applied French which is being developed by the SSAT Lead Practitioners in order to share ideas and ask questions.' Sarah Ward

Issues/tips
An important issue to consider is the practicality of online testing for the listening and reading parts of the exam which requires each candidate to work at a computer with headphones. In addition to this, teachers need to fully understand the opportunities and flexibility the Applied GCSE  offers as well as the structure of the course and the criteria for assessment. This is likely to require some time for staff training. Shared resources and schemes of work are becoming increasingly more available through the Applied French networks, the SSAT website and the Applied French Revision website throughout the chouse of the year. Staff have found that they still use many of the GCSE resources they used in the past when teaching the conventional GCSE, particularly for the generic topics, and that these can be supplemented by text books such as Contexte, which they have found they can use for the Media and Communication as well as Leisure and Tourism contexts. Staff collaboration on developing new ideas and resources for teaching the GCSE has also been very successful.

Results/effect
It is still early to analyse how Applied French has impacted on results but the students’ attitudes towards doing coursework and preparing for interactions are testimony to the way the Applied French GCSE has increased students’ motivation. The opportunity to link with business and set up learning visits has contributed to this increased motivation.

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. By being part of the pilot for Applied French GCSE Hele’s has strengthened its network of contacts with other schools and language colleges across the region and nationally.'

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 8th February 2008. There was a large turnout and I will be sending details of future training and developments for the GCSE to members of the Applied French network. For more information, please email me.'

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

Also read the vocational case study about Hele's School's link with Brittany Ferries.