European Day of Languages (EDL)
A great way to raise pupils’ and parents’ awareness of languages in your school is to organise an event or a series of events to celebrate the European Day of Languages (EDL). It’s also a brilliant way to raise the profile of languages by getting colleagues from other departments and your School Leadership Team involved.

Details about EDL can be found on CILT’s EDL pages.

EDL could be the climax of a whole week’s activities (European Week of Languages). Talk to your SLT about it becoming a regular fixture in your school calendar (similar to Sports week or Science Week) and emphasise the cross-curricular and whole-school possibilities, it should not be confined to the MFL department, and does not have to be in the same week as EDL itself.

Many schools organise a week’s activities at other times in the year to give their school calendar a balance. Use European Week of languages to promote languages and to emphasise their wider importance, as well as making language learning fun. You could, for example, plan a week’s cross-curricular theme with colleagues in other departments, eg Music, Art, Geography, Science, Drama, PE. This can be complimented by lunchtime events and competitions and you can involve the wider school community by inviting colleagues and parents to language taster sessions or fun activities, with pupils taking the lead. Your school canteen might be willing to offer an international menu over the week. You could promote the week in advance via your school website and parental newsletter and launch it with an imaginative assembly. Your local newspaper may be happy to support your event if you send them details in advance (in the form of a press release) and invite a reporter and photographer along and remember to involve your school magazine/student council/PTA for even more support.

Why study languages? Promoting Languages in Schools
A new student facing website which contains lots of interactive quizzes, videos and practical advice for KS3, KS4 and Post-16. The site was written by university students with recent experience of studying for GCSEs and A-levels.
http://www.whystudylanguages.ac.uk/

Why study languages? 2011 calendar
A calendar designed to introduce pupils to a wide range of languages is available to buy from Routes into Languages. The calendar features 12 languages, one per month. It also includes questions that are designed to generate classroom discussion. Languages featured this year include: Turkish, German, Brazilian Portuguese, Inuktitut, Catalan, Manx Gaelic, Korean, Chichewa, Thai, Gujarati, French and Romanian.

Pack of 1 - £6.13
Pack of 5 - £20.42

For further information and to place your order, please go to: http://www.routesintolanguages.ac.uk/calendar

Cross curricular themes (CLIL)
Many secondary schools have successfully taught units of work from different subject areas via the medium of the foreign language. This needs careful planning and collaboration between departments, but schools have been highly successful in raising attainment and maintaining interest in both languages and the subject taught. 

Click here to see examples of CLIL in action and further ideas for increasing motivation and participation at KS4.

We must remember, too, that at KS2 Primary pupils are being increasingly exposed to languages being integrated with other subjects. This means they will come to secondary school with an expectation that this form of teaching will continue and will have less difficulty than current cohorts of pupils in accepting this as “the norm”.

The CILT 14 to 19 webpages show examples of CLIL teaching in action. 

Follow the link below to watch a film about Immersion Teaching at Chenderit School on the ALL website.

At Ashcombe School in Surrey, International Business Week is seen as an opportunity to introduce pupils to the role that languages play in the work place:

For information about the Languages Meet Sport conference:

Click here to see the KS2 QCA schemes of work for French, Spanish and German.

Increasing take up at KS4
Many languages departments are struggling to retain and increase take up at KS4. CILT’s New Pathfinder no.5 “Making the case for languages at Key Stage 4” is a valuable resource for heads of department and is highly recommended.

The recent Ofsted report “The changing landscape of languages” highlights the decline in take up at KS4 and reports on strategies to raise take up, see in particular pages 39 to 44.

It is worth considering alternatives to GCSE accreditation depending on what is appropriate to your school. The Reshaping languages section of CILT’s webpages details the different accreditation and qualifications on offer, together with case studies supported by video clips.  Remember, too, that a language can be an integral part of your school’s Diploma award, forming the Additional and Specialist Learning component.  Read the CILT pages on the Diplomas for more information.

Routes into Languages has a consortium in each region of England working to widen participation in languages from KS4 onwards.

Promoting Languages
The cultural agencies which represent the various countries where foreign languages are spoken offer training and a wealth of resources (often free of charge). They frequently run competitions for schools which can help boost the languages departments’ profile as well as providing an engaging challenge for pupils. Visit the websites for the Goethe-Institut, the Institut Français,  the Consejeria de educación and the Italian Cultural Institute.

There are also national awards which schools can compete for. For example, find out more about the European Award for Languages.

The London 2012 Olympic Games provide an opportunity to promote the significance of languages and culture as domestic businesses; public services and other organisations prepare to welcome visitors from all over the world to our capital city. 

Double club is an innovative project which links language learning and football.  It is run in association with various cultural organisations and Arsenal football club.  General details are available here, there is also information about the French Double Club, the German Double Club and the Spanish Double Club.