Planning and Implementation
Curriculum
The school is one of the six schools in Renfrewshire that have piloted a progressive framework created by the local authority which outlines the skills development that can be expected as learners progress through the primary stages. This framework allows for flexibility and teachers can plan and choose the materials and activities that are most appropriate to all their learners’ needs.
Pupils with additional support needs learn French too. There is a child in primary six for whom a light comes on when he has French. When he was introduced to it he loved it. Materials were adapted for him and he embraced it. It became a real medium for his learning through the different topics. It also supported his language development.
- Headteacher
Learning and teaching
The aim of the learning and teaching is to develop children’s skills and confidence in listening and talking, reading and writing, in the target language. A wide range of strategies is employed to embed modern languages more fully across the curriculum, making links where appropriate and relevant. Daily routine, classroom organisation, use of the outdoor environment and interdisciplinary learning activities provide interesting opportunities for children to demonstrate their skills in a meaningful context.
See videos of some learning in action at Houston Primary School (YouTube)
To broaden cultural awareness at all stages, the children are given opportunities to explore the culture of countries where French and Spanish are spoken. They investigate, for example, landmarks, food, festivals and celebrations, the arts, the education system, the Euro and trade.
Resources
The school uses a wide variety of active, stimulating and inclusive activities and resources such as songs and games, interactive IWB activities, websites, Power Points, sound files, CDs, DVDs. Teachers make good use of resources from other areas of the curriculum such as number fans. They also use puppets, flash cards, big books, toys, musical instruments, AV devices such as recordable pegs, talking tins, microphones, and dictionaries to improve the learning experience. Use of effective ICT underpins learning and teaching at Houston Primary School and teachers make use of blogs to communicate with their partner school in France.
Contextualised learning
The teachers have integrated French into various interesting and relevant contexts for learning. This includes P2 learning about Blanche-Neige in French as part of their work on fairy tales and P5 learning about the planets in French. A good example of this approach is a P6 project “A la boulangerie”.
Learners used their numeracy skills to participate in various activities that required them to use weights and measures in the target language. They advertised their boulangerie throughout the school and baked items to sell to other pupils and to the community. They also used their IT skills to create designs for their cake bags.
Progression
To monitor language progression, teachers use ongoing assessment and gather evidence to demonstrate individual progress in learning. Progress in languages features on school reports to parents.
The school strives to ensure that all four skill areas are developed and that learners move from basic word level towards more independent use of the language, with sentences and paragraphs. For example, in the nursery, the words for colours are introduced. By the end of P7, children will recycle these words accurately in sentences with the correct adjectival agreement.
Colours will appear the whole way through [the school], but it’s the way they are used that is different and it’s monitored very closely at school level.
- Principal Teacher
Access Education Scotland’s Guidelines on a 1+2 approach to language learning.
Partnership
A French native speaker in the local community helps lead the language learning in the nursery school along with the nursery staff. Parents too are very supportive. They take part in open afternoons and events. For example, in the nursery children learn a French Christmas song and sing it as part of the Christmas show. Parents help their children practise the song at home.
A school blog also ensures that parents can see the learning that has taken place in all areas of the curriculum including modern languages. Additionally, information about language learning is shared with the wider community in the local magazine.
Houston Primary School has a strong partnership with the local secondary school.
The secondary school is very complementary of the work that has been done in the primary. We have a good partnership with our secondary school where they always speak highly of our pupils and their ability in a modern language. They offer French and Spanish at S1 and we have started Spanish as our L3 to provide continuity for the pupils. Modern languages are discussed as part of our transition group and in previous years secondary staff have visited the primary.
- Primary PT
Gryffe High says:
We work closely with Houston Primary in terms of discussing experiences and outcomes to ensure progression from primary (
CfE level 2 primary). Every year the school also holds a P7 transition day in June which allows pupils to experience a little of what they will be doing in September. This year, for the first time, modern languages are involved. Hosting a French/Spanish food event, pupils will be able to use some of the French language they have already learned and experience a language in a realistic and engaging context. This should make them more comfortable in the transition and confident in their French but also show links between languages.
Staff from primary and secondary schools also plan to work together next session to deliver joint language workshops that explore globally celebrated events such as the French 'Mardi Gras' celebrations and the Mexican 'Day of the Dead'.
These stimulating and engaging inputs will increase cultural awareness as well as offering new vocabulary for primary pupils.
- PT Modern Languages, Gryffe High School
International Links
The teachers have developed an interesting link with a primary school in Lyon. This has resulted in one of the Scottish teachers shadowing a colleague in Lyon. This was followed by a reciprocal visit to Houston Primary School by two French teachers who very impressed not only by the school’s creative approaches to learning and teaching, but by the quality of the learners’ ability in French. As a result of this partnership, the school has developed a blog where children regularly exchange information and photographs with their French counterparts.