Case study

Insitution: Bourne Community College

Key objectives
To provide differentiated activities in GCSE French and Spanish to cater for students of varying levels of ability. This is part of a much wider strategy to ensure that all students can access the languages curriculum at their own level. Students are also entered for Alternative Accreditation in KS4 as a means of differentiation by offering NVQs in French and Spanish at level 2 to D/E grade students. In Year 9 students have also taken an Entry Level Certificate course.

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Associated video clips

Differentiation in GCSE French
This lesson is an example of how the teacher has enabled the full ability range to participate fully in a GCSE French lesson. The clip shows a range of activities from full-class participation, group work and the use of differentiated sheets to enable students to access the materials presented.
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Differentiation in GCSE Spanish

Clips from this GCSE Spanish lesson show how the teacher has differentiated to make the content accessible to the whole class. The teacher is following the same scheme of work as for the French lesson above.

Lesson Introduction
In his lesson introduction, the teacher provides differentiated targets for the class stating what all, most and some of the students will be able to achieve by the end of the lesson.
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Revision of useful phrases connected with feeling ill
The teacher then revises useful phrases connected with feeling ill.  Students are asked to recall these and the teacher writes them onto the board. He differentiates by asking for alternative expressions.
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Preparing for and carrying out a speaking activity in pairs
Following a listening activity where the students are provided with differentiated worksheets to enable them to access the material, the students then prepare a speaking activity in pairs on the topic of illness.
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Interviews with the teacher and headteacher involved in this case study.

Differentiation by offering a range of courses in the school
The Head of Languages describes the range of courses offered in the school which include NVQ, GCSE and Entry level Certificate. She also describes how a family learning after-school group involving students and parents has been working over the last two years on GCSE Spanish.
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Interview with Mrs Margaret Eva, Headteacher of the Bourne Community College
In her interview, the Headteacher describes the enormous benefits gained by all in the school from Language College status, the international dimension which is now evident across the curriculum and the importance of an excellent, dynamic team of staff.
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