Institution: Brookfield Community School and Language College

Context
Brookfield is situated in Sarisbury Green in the ‘Western Wards’ area of Fareham, a small town between Portsmouth and Southampton. The school has seen rapid growth in recent years and the school is now one of the largest coeducational comprehensive schools in Hampshire. The pupil admission number is 351 and there are currently 1753 students on roll. Specialist status for languages was awarded in 2002 and re-designated in 2007.

How the programme is organised
The NVQ course is offered to around 100 students in Years 10 and 11. These students typically have a Fischer Family Trust target of less than a C, or are unlikely to achieve a grade C at GCSE. The compilation of a portfolio of formative assessments and the absence of final exams suits the vast majority of their individual learning needs. 

The scheme of work (doc 5.6MB) is designed to give students the language tools they would need if they were to receive foreign guests in future employment, or if they were to travel abroad to meet associate companies. There is much emphasis on transactional language, but they are also taught how to ‘small talk’, present themselves and their business, and how to arrange meetings, both for business and pleasure.

Students are given a choice in how they present their speaking and writing tasks, often involving ICT, which enhances their motivation and further develops their ICT skills. Some tasks also give the students a chance to practise other cross-curricular skills, especially those linked with the Creative and Media diploma.

Impact on learners
In general, learners find the NVQ course more accessible than the GCSE. They can see how they are achieving as they progress through the assessments, and they have a clear picture of exactly what they need to do in order to reach their individual target. Learners leave the course with a good sense of achievement in languages and a nationally recognised qualification in their hand. Download a student induction document (doc 53KB).

Impact on teachers
There are now 14 languages teachers involved in delivering the course in Years 10 and 11. Once they have made themselves familiar with the assessment criteria of the NVQ, QCF units and the Scheme of Work, teachers are able to follow the course and help students achieve their potential. There is a fair amount of student tracking to do, especially when ensuring they have met all the assessment criteria. But, if regularly kept up-to-date, the job is much more manageable.

Impact on the school/college
In the 2008-2009 cohort, 88 students left school with a languages NVQ. In the French groups 58 percent of the pupils achieved the equivalent of a C grade and 50 percent achieved this level in the German groups. Such levels would otherwise not have been possible. In the 2009-2010 cohort, 99 students completed an NVQ in French or German, 74 of these at level 2.  Out of a year group of 351, this had a huge impact on results as these students would never have got a C at GCSE. Students, who left with very few qualifications overall, saw their points score boosted by the couple of skills they achieved at NVQ level 1.

Teacher quote: ‘NVQ offers an excellent opportunity for the less motivated student to have a sense of achievement in languages and to leave school with a credible language qualification.’

Most recent Ofsted report (illustrating approval of the extra opportunities offered to language learners)

‘The school is aware that GCSE results in modern foreign languages remain below what they should be. Effective strategies and recent appointments are ensuring that better teaching and systems to monitor students' progress are now in place.  Students in Years 8 and 9 experience a balanced curriculum with the addition of extra language opportunities. At present Years 10 and 11 follow a choice of three different pathways and there is an appropriate range of vocational options.’

Future developments
The school would like to redraft the scheme of work to make it more reflective of the Creative and Media diploma that is offered. A further development will be to make more links with local business, to show students how languages can be actively used in the workplace, and to invite business peoplein for events to boost motivation and raise the profile of languages.

Author: Hazel Line, Brookfield Community School and Language College