Article Details

Article Details

Family learning in Fife

Author: Tamsin Johnston, Fife

In April 2017, over 1000 families from a diverse catchment area embarked on an exciting learning journey in Fife: learning French online. This project involves teachers, head teachers and P3-P5 pupils from nine schools, together with their families and local libraries.

Everyone involved has been given access to the PowerLanguage online course for families and a booklet developed to support the project. This is a pilot being run by Fife Council in conjunction with PowerLanguage, and a case study of the project will be written by SCILT.

A celebration event involving teachers, pupils and their families will take place in two local secondary schools in June. The aim of the project is to promote family learning: effective family learning contributes to excellence and equity in our education, with positive outcomes for both children and adults involved.

Book Bug sessions with language learning

In 2016/2017 we have been carrying out a pilot with four libraries and their associated cluster primaries and nurseries across Fife. We have introduced traditional French, Spanish and German songs and rhymes into Book Bug sessions and given out boxes of language books to the schools and libraries to support L2 in these schools. The aim is to support early level language learning and raise the profile of 1+2 in the school and wider community.

This is another example involving our parents and children in real, family learning situations. Feedback has been very positive, and we will build on this by providing all primary schools in Fife with a free box of books in their L2. Each box has a mixture of traditional stories well known to the children, including ‘The Hungry Caterpillar’, ‘Owl Babies’ and ‘The Gruffalo’, as well as other simple stories in the L2. Thanks to the native speakers in the PowerLanguage team for supporting this project with training and for teaching us very catchy songs and rhymes!

Return to June 2017 newsletter
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SCILT - Scotlands National centre for Languages