Institution: Quintin Kynaston School

Context 
Quintin Kynaston is a mixed 11-19 Community Foundation School and Technology College in St John ’s Wood in the Westminster Local Education Authority area. There are 1356 students on-roll with 320 in the Sixth Form, almost 80% of the students have English as an additional language. At an Ofsted inspection in December 2008 the school was designated ‘outstanding’ overall and in virtually every area. French is taught from Years 7 to 9 and offered as a GCSE as well as Italian to top sets in Year 8 and Year 9 and then GCSE. 

Key objective

• To enhance inclusion in this multi-cultural school and to promote languages and their importance outside of languages lessons.

How the programme is organised
In order to improve inclusion and to promote languages and their importance outside of MFL lessons, the school has introduced a ‘Language of the Month’ programme. Staff find facts about the particular language and have a display board dedicated to this where answers are given to questions that are put around the school. The questions are about the country or countries where the language is spoken and the aim is to include questions which are on subjects taught in the curriculum including Geography, Music and Art. At the end of the month differentiated questionnaires are given to the Heads of Year who then quiz the students in their form groups- the winner of each year is given a box of chocolates as a prize. Here is an example of such a quiz on Italy. (doc 60KB)

The school also dedicates one day where food from this country is served. The menu is displayed around the canteen in English and in the target language. Here is an example of an Arabic menu (doc 1.16MB). Students and parents are informed about what is going on by publicising the menu and activities which are taking place in the school newsletter.
 
Learning opportunities outside the school include visits to London Metropolitan University (Aim Higher) and La France en direct workshops for speaking and listening practice. This also helps students understand the importance of languages in the world of work. The school makes regular visits to France and Italy and A Level students undertake a work experience placement abroad.

The faculty works alongside other departments on a range of cross-curricular activities throughout the year. For example, Year 9 classes work with Business Studies and Science and Year 7 classes with Music. In June 2008 Year 8 Italian students were given an AQA accreditation for participating in an Italian and DT cooking activity where they hand-made fresh pasta and tomato sauce.

Evidence of success
In 2008, 78% of GCSE language students gained A*-C and 76% of A Level students gained an A-C grade. The school also offers community languages in after-school sessions and  these subjects are Arabic, Bengali, Persian, Russian, Spanish, Portuguese and beginners’ Mandarin. These classes are well-attended and students do well at KS4 and KS5.

Future developments
To further enhance inclusion the school is planning to introduce alternative accreditation such as NVQ languages.

Author: Jessica Schembri, Languages department