Insitution: Bourne Community College
Context
The Bourne Community College is
now a flourishing, mixed and inclusive College on the borders of
West Sussex and Hampshire. It has 700 students and 28 Partner
Primary schools. It is situated in an area identified as part of
the south Coast deprivation with pockets of affluence. The school
also links with an Army base on Thorney Island.A new Head was
appointed six years ago who works closely with all staff and
Governors to raise expectations and aspirations across the whole
College community with the result that there is now a changed
culture which is successful and outward–looking. It was a crucial
development when the school achieved Combined Specialist Status in
MFL and English in July 2007, following an Outstanding Ofsted in
Nov 2006.
Margaret Eva, Head of
Bourne Community College
"The impact across the Bourne of a dynamic
and inspirational MFL Team is both tangible and measurable. Our
school has become unique and internationally focussed. Lively and
interactive teaching and learning has been fundamental to
developments and increased enjoyment of language learning. Regular
video-conferencing, together with exchange visits to partner
primary schools and schools internationally, has heightened
students’ awareness of the wider world and, as a result, students
have become more globally aware” - Margaret Eva, Headteacher.
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. Read
about the NVQ course at the Bourne.
How the lesson was organised
The two groups
filmed in Year 10 (one French, one Spanish) are GCSE students,
specifically chosen to study at this level as a result of their KS3
levels and linguistic ability. All have studied French at KS3 and a
few have studied Spanish for one lesson per week in year
8/9. In both groups the girls are in the majority (the Spanish
group has 4 boys and 15 girls and the French group has 10 Boys and
19 Girls) however the boys tend to be more confident orally (which
may in part be due to their involvement in the Raising Boys
achievement).The Spanish group is composed of a few students who
were allowed to give up French and study Spanish as their main MFL
at KS4 based on their ability or because they had moved from
another school where they had studied a little Spanish at KS3 Both
groups are well motivated and positive about their language
learning and being part of the Bourne. In this lesson which was
delivered in both Spanish and French, the students were working on
the topic of illnesses and visiting the doctor.
In all language classes staff ensure there are a variety of
activities and that there is always extension work for the more
able. Teachers take care to differentiate for the weaker ones to
enable them to access the material being delivered- see the
examples of differentiated work sheets in French for this lesson.
Model answers or texts are provided which students can work on or
adapt. For the productive skills of speaking and writing the MFL
team ensures there are always open ended activities which are
mostly created in-house to ensure they reach the higher levels.
Worksheets in French from this lesson
Listening
transcript with gapfill (doc 28KB)
Listening
exercise with grid (doc 32 KB)
Vocabulary
sheet (doc 28KB)
Further top tips to enable students to achieve their potential at
GCSE:
- Good use is made of foreign language assistants to support the
students with their oral tasks and to prepare for their oral exams.
Some students work in small groups with the assistant in class and
others in a small study area outside depending on their level of
confidence and competence.
- Weekly after school revision sessions for GCSE oral
revision and coursework catch up are held. These enable
students in need of additional support to receive the help that
they need to achieve their full potential.
Results
The Bourne is now a highly successful centre of learning and
results have grown from 24% A*-C Grades in 2001 to 80% A*-C in
2008. In languages, results have grown from 24% A-C grades at GCSE
in 2004 to 58% in 2008. Now all students study a language up to the
age of 16 and from year 8 can study two languages.
“A large part of the success of languages
in our school has been due to the support of our dynamic
Headteacher, Margaret Eva, who has been prepared to allow us to
take risks and choose new approaches and courses appropriate to our
students to enable them to achieve their full
potential” Yvonne Watkins, Director of Specialism,
MFL.
Future developments
Staff at the school use textbooks, video clips, revision guides,
and resources online, or shared resources eg Eurobourne.
ICT is used regularly and from September 2008 the languages faculty
will have shared access to a new Languages and Communications
Centre with English.
Author: Yvonne Watkins, Director of Specialism, MFL
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