Languages teaching and learning present their own
challenges when pupils transfer to Secondary school. Prior to
widespread use of the KS2 Framework the situation on transfer to
Secondary school is likely to present a somewhat mixed picture.
Even if all pupils in a Year 7 class have studied the same language
at Primary school they may have been taught in very different ways
or have covered very different areas of vocabulary and different
grammatical structures.
The project is focusing on the following areas of work:
- To research examples of good practice in transition
- To produce successful models and new approaches to teaching and
learning particularly in KS3 to support effective transfer and
transition
- To identify national/regional/local needs influencing the
different types of guidance that schools will be looking for in
order to ensure smooth progression in languages from KS2 to KS3,
e.g. multilingual classrooms, selective schools, the range of
languages taught.
As the result of the work that has been done, the
Year 7 language learner in September 2010 will be a more
confident, and more linguistically sophisticated learner than the
Secondary teacher has perhaps encountered previously. The challenge
for Secondary languages teachers will be to recognise their pupils’
achievement and skills and to build on these in order to maintain
momentum, enthusiasm and a continued desire for learning.
Embedding and evaluating what has been achieved so
far
Much of the work in the first year of this project has focussed
on establishing partnerships based on mutual trust and
understanding and collaborative working practices. The schemes of
work, lesson planning, resources, materials and guidelines that
project partners have produced and trialled in a limited number of
schools will now be embedded within more schools during the next
year. This will allow us to evaluate their impact, change
accordingly if necessary and extend the focus of each
project.
The focus of work undertaken so far has very much been on
ensuring that primary children approach the move to secondary
language learning with confidence and enthusiasm. Read
more about this project (pdf,
189KB)