This project has a
three-pronged approach:
Cross-phase observations. Every member of the MFL team at the
secondary school visited one of the cluster primary schools to
observe a Year 6 literacy lesson. In turn, each of the primary
language subject leaders visited the secondary school to observe a
Year 7 language lesson. The rationale behind trained language
teachers from the secondary school watching literacy lessons was to
observe primary pedagogy and the links between language learning
and literacy. By observing Year 7 language lessons, the primary
teachers experienced progression within language learning within
Key Stage 3.
Pupils in Year 5 attended a Language Skills day at
the secondary school. The purpose of the day is to demonstrate that
it does not matter if the language studied at primary school is
different from those to be studied at secondary school. The Year 5
pupils have worked together with Year 7 on various language
based challenges using French, German, Spanish and Italian. The
resources used have been adapted from the primary resources about
traditional fairy stories developed by Louise Harty published on
the Northumberland Grid
for Learning site.
The project focused on the story of
‘Goldilocks and the three bears’. Pupils used their knowledge
about language and language learning strategies to work out what
the language means. The pupils from the cluster primaries have
mixed with the students from the secondary school to ensure a real
cross section of languages and previous language knowledge.
They have also required to focus on the ways in which they
arrive at decoding the languages.
Parents have been invited to attend a curriculum evening held
at the secondary school. Following presentation by the Head of
Languages about the transferability of language skills, the parents
will undertake similar activities to those done by their children
at the languages day and will see that language learning skills are
indeed transferable. Read more about this project (doc,
20KB)