Audrey McKie

Hi everybody I am looking for ideas and tips on raising achievement in general, with the following subheadings: - raising achievement at KS4. - raising boys' achievement. I went on a course a couple of years ago which gave me concrete ideas to use in the classroom, and it did work well, but I am finding that I am always using the same ideas, the same games : there are only so many ways of using Os and Xs!!! I just want to know whether we could all share ideas (from all subjects, from all types of schools) on how we try to raise motivation and achievement in our classrooms. Even a list on what to avoid would be welcome... Thanks Audrey

I was re-reading this thread and had to admit that things are not getting better... The take up for languages at GCSE in Year 10 (prospective, that is) is extremely low (1/3 of cohort, including many dual linguits). However, Business Studies and Media Studies have more students than they can cope with! So the new idea is that those taking the aforementioned subjects should study a language as a compulsory component of that course. Well, I can see how this could be a good idea in theory: broader education, more skills, more employable students... Indeed, if you want to work, for example in export, it seems fundamental to know at least ONE language. Yet, in practice, I think it'll only serve as a deterrent for many students who will therfore not take those courses.

Graham, at last what we have been predicted has unfortunately come true. Is there a primary source which you could give us a link to so I can print it for work? Alas, this is too late to influence our take up in Year 10 (very low this year , sadly) but there may be a couple of our GCSE cohort whom I could persuade to take up a language at A-Level... Audrey

Well, the interview is on Tuesday. Did I not say? I got this job for ONE term and it can be renewed as a permanent post as a 2nd in Faculty, in charge of KS4. I have been given all the details about the interview and I noticed that the school has invited one of the candidates who was present the last time round... I really don't know what to make of it, so if you have any tips, from whichever side of the interview room, it would be greatly appreciated... (interviewee, interviewer). My lesson is : half a Yr 10 class (grades A* - B ): Ma ville, intro lesson, concentrate on Speaking and Listening skills. Graham, any ideas on how to approach the matter? thanks Have a great weekend

Graham said Typical!!! Thanks, very helpful

Dear Colleagues I just thought that I would try to revive this tread as the European Day of Languages is approaching fast. Are you doing anything special in your school? What has the response been by colleagues from other faculties? if any or if involved. I have just started in a new post in Cheshire and I am pleased to see that the Languages has got a pretty high profile, possibly because we have a Dep Head and an Asst Head in the Faculty... This is what we've organised (I say WE but I mean the Head of Faculty): -an inter-tutor quiz about languages and European countries and cultures -willing teachers to greet students in a foreign language -students are challenged to teach teachers a aord or a fact about a language or country (which they didn't alrready know) One of the Maths NQTs, who is fluent in French is planning to do her lessons in French for that day too. I think this is fantastic and I am positively impressed ny the lack of reluctance of the staff here to get stuck in! Tell us all about your plans or what you have done in the past or did if you don't get to read this before Monday... Happy European Day of Languages Joyeuse Journee Europeenne des Langues

thanks for your information and precious help, I have a lot to think about over the next 3 weeks.

I agree with Graham concerning the over-specialisation of our students. It is rare to find people who are competent in more than one field, unlike people of our generation or older. A relative of mine is a world-wide acclaimed engineer whose career only advanced because he is able to conduct conferences in (broken) English without a translator or notes! The Americans love him! A while back, I found myself explaining to GCSE students that there wasn't a King in England at the moment an that the Queen Mother (who had just passed on ) was the Queen's mother. They were totally miffed with my explanation and one of them earnestly explained that he didn't know because he wasn't doing history... Yet, studying geography di not help as he thought that the capital of Chile was Con Carne! I despair... Ona more positive note, I think that we should see a sharp rise in the MFL results in the few years to come because of the optional system. I have to admit (reluctantly) that it has some positive sides. I teach 3 GCSE groups this year who are all very nice and motivated and relatively bright and they have all CHOSEN to do the subject. For the first time in my small career, I enjoy teaching KS4 more than KS3! Let's wait until next August and see what the option-students deliver.

I am applying for a second in Faculty job whose main responsibility will be 'in charge of GCSE/KS4'. Any tips on what to include in letters, what to expect for interviews,etc... If this is your job description, can you tell me more about it? All help appreciated. Ta.

When the results came out, I was very angry to see that, yet again, MFL was a target as an underachiever. Yet I was pleased to hear the journalist say 'maybe the dramatic fall in the take out of languages at GCSE has to do with the fact that the subject is now no longer compulsory; and that is not right.' On a more positive note, in my little group of adult learners taking a Spanish GCSE as an evening class, so far (I haven't managed to get in touch with all of my 'classmates') our pass rate of A*s and As is 100%. I don't blame pupils for choosing easier subjects where they know that they will get better grades, in their situation, I would do the same. I think that the option system has to be revised and and made more coherent from one school to the other. Why can't we go towards a system whereby options could be organised in groups and thus try to deliver a balanced curriculum? By that I mean to try to avoid the pitfall of the completely optional system where pupils can have very little literacy or numeracy etc except for the core subjects, yet that (utopic?) system would still allow some specialisation. I have in mind the post 16 French educational system, at least what was in place when I was doing my Bac. For example, I worked out that I was better at Languages than anything else, I quite liked reading too, so the Literary block was good for me: 2 languages, French, Humanities were the main components, and I was happy with that. I was less happy with the 8 weekly hours of philosophy but I made do with it because I got more out of it than I would have of any other block. On top of that I had to do one hour a week of biology, of physics and of maths. Only one of the 'scientific' subject would be sanctioned with an exam which we were told a month prior to the exam: it was physics, there was therefore no reason to get a bad mark as we knew what to revise, so I scored 95% (fluke). That grade is probably not worth very much but it looks good on the CV!! To finish with, I think the main point that I was trying to get across is that we need to have a clear structure to abide by and that it should be the same for all schools.

i think something went wrong with the computer. I wasn't being forceful putting my point across.... Sorry

I think that your first two points are roughly similar. Schools are put under so much pressure from outside agencies that they have little time left to deal with what is really important life inside the school, the teaching and the welfare of our students. Indeed, like you say, John, it is little surprising that schools have developed survival methods or shortcuts to make them meet the rigorous targets set by Ofsted and their like. The problem with the league tables was very well illustrated by a dispute my colleagues and I had with the 6th form college. Most of our A* students in Languages who carry on with the subject at AS Level find themselves totally lost, submerged by very complex grammatical concepts that they never have heard of in secondary school. 6th form tutors complain that we don't teach properly (not enough grammar, etc) yet, we teach very well for the pupils to achieve the best possible grade. Who's right and who's wrong? As for the inclusion policy, I am sure that it was a great idea to start with but I don't think that school have been given the tools to deal with so many disruptive pupils. Rather than making disruptive, problem pupils more 'mainstream', it has had the opposite effect, making borderline pupils or even 'good' pupils go to 'the dark side' because they can see other pupils geting away with things. They try it on, before you know it, half the class develop an attitude, they get rude, rowdy and finally they fight, throw chairs at each other (I'm not even joking) and the school goes onto a downward spiral... In my opinion, inclusion and assimilation can only work if only a few individuals are dealt with at a time. Schools otherwise find themselves overwhelmed with trouble they can't deal with at once.

I think that your first two points are roughly similar. Schools are put under so much pressure from outside agencies that they have little time left to deal with what is really important life inside the school, the teaching and the welfare of our students. Indeed, like you say, John, it is little surprising that schools have developed survival methods or shortcuts to make them meet the rigorous targets set by Ofsted and their like. The problem with the league tables was very well illustrated by a dispute my colleagues and I had with the 6th form college. Most of our A* students in Languages who carry on with the subject at AS Level find themselves totally lost, submerged by very complex grammatical concepts that they never have heard of in secondary school. 6th form tutors complain that we don't teach properly (not enough grammar, etc) yet, we teach very well for the pupils to achieve the best possible grade. Who's right and who's wrong? As for the inclusion policy, I am sure that it was a great idea to start with but I don't think that school have been given the tools to deal with so many disruptive pupils. Rather than making disruptive, problem pupils more 'mainstream', it has had the opposite effect, making borderline pupils or even 'good' pupils go to 'the dark side' because they can see other pupils geting away with things. They try it on, before you know it, half the class develop an attitude, they get rude, rowdy and finally they fight, throw chairs at each other (I'm not even joking) and the school goes onto a downward spiral... In my opinion, inclusion and assimilation can only work if only a few individuals are dealt with at a time. Schools otherwise find themselves overwhelmed with trouble they can't deal with at once.

I think that your first two points are roughly similar. Schools are put under so much pressure from outside agencies that they have little time left to deal with what is really important life inside the school, the teaching and the welfare of our students. Indeed, like you say, John, it is little surprising that schools have developed survival methods or shortcuts to make them meet the rigorous targets set by Ofsted and their like. The problem with the league tables was very well illustrated by a dispute my colleagues and I had with the 6th form college. Most of our A* students in Languages who carry on with the subject at AS Level find themselves totally lost, submerged by very complex grammatical concepts that they never have heard of in secondary school. 6th form tutors complain that we don't teach properly (not enough grammar, etc) yet, we teach very well for the pupils to achieve the best possible grade. Who's right and who's wrong? As for the inclusion policy, I am sure that it was a great idea to start with but I don't think that school have been given the tools to deal with so many disruptive pupils. Rather than making disruptive, problem pupils more 'mainstream', it has had the opposite effect, making borderline pupils or even 'good' pupils go to 'the dark side' because they can see other pupils geting away with things. They try it on, before you know it, half the class develop an attitude, they get rude, rowdy and finally they fight, throw chairs at each other (I'm not even joking) and the school goes onto a downward spiral... In my opinion, inclusion and assimilation can only work if only a few individuals are dealt with at a time. Schools otherwise find themselves overwhelmed with trouble they can't deal with at once.

So what is the truth, John? That documentary made me a little angry, so much so, i stopped watching it after about 35 minutes. It made me wonder: Is it fair that teachers and schools should fail their inspections because of a handful of pupils who cannot be controled? I agree that sending them on a day trip as if they'd done something to deserve it is wrong and doesn't give a fair representation of the school, but is it the teachers' fault that they cannot be controled? sometimes, but not necessarily. On the topic of lesson plans: Do teachers have time to provide supply teachers with detailed lesson plans for them to take over? Not always and certainly not for long-term absences. I could do it if I am out for one day, but if the supply teacher is not a linguist, they're still not going to be able to teach. So, indeed, the cover work isn't challenging, but we are always asked not to give something too complicated so that anybody can do the lesson. As far as long-term supply teachers are concerned, those who work in my school are excellent and they are provided with SoWs and can plan their lessons themselves. It is also the school's responsability to take care of their supply teachers, so that they'll want to come back. This will in turn make the pupils think that they are part of the staff if they are often in school, therefore trigger more respect. This is one of the major problems with supply (and new) teachers, pupils 'try it on' with them until they become a familiar sighting in school, part of the furniture, if you like.

Just thought I'd ask those of you who have seeen the documentary what they thought of it.

I'll suggest that next time we have a meeting, which is not even once a year.... Although I am French, I am not a great Union person, but I agree with yur view and i wish that they could make themselves heard. The trouble is that one of our reps is retiring and the other one (from a rival company!) took over two years ago from a retiree and is doing that job the same way as he does his teaching one: he just doesn't care...... I'll stop being cynical for a minute and will submit your idea to my colleagues. Thanks Derek.

I am afed up with the lack of transparency from members of the management team in my present school. What they is at best contradictory: on the one hand, we are told that due to the unions (and thereafterthe government too) workload has got to be reduced, and I am greatful for the little amount of cover I have done this year, but on the other hand we are thrown a vast amount a small or large tasks to do, most often administrative and always extremely obscure. And at worst it just does not make any sense... For example, all teachers at my school are being observed by SMT, however, the reason for this new measure has never been discussed with middle management or the rest of the staff. It has left the staff on the whole feeling spied upon and mostly it has a certain whiff of forthcoming Ofsted Inspection. Secondly, for the rest of the term, all staff have been asked to produce a weekly chart of self-evaluation: How many of my lessons this week have been outstanding? good? satisfactory? poor? Although, I think that in itself and for personal reasons, self-evaluationis a good idea because it enables people to move forward, I do not understand why it has been imposed by SMT without any reasons. Does your school do the same to you? Do they provide exlanations? Have you got an opinion about this issue?

Graham says: Yes, I've had a similar experience with a Swiss girl speaking French who wanted to 'lancer un coup de fil' instead of 'donner un coup de fil' (to phone) which in my mind's eye looked like her whipping me with the phone wire!!!

I would like to meet the person who decided that British children did not need to know the grammar of their own language and tell them what I think of that decision! How much more difficult our job is when we constantly have to correct pupils' speech, their writing, etc... let alone teach them anything worthwhile! This is so frustrating! Let's see what our newly appointed governement decides to do about the appalling state of Education

Graham says The question of dreams and languages is one that is often asked by my students, as well as that of thinknig. They always wonder which language I do these in. Apart from very few occasions where it is obvious and the reasons for doing so are too - e.g. my Spanish exams are coming soon and I've been dreaming in Spanish a lot recently - I actually don't know what language I dream in anymore. I think that because I know 2 languages well and 2 others fairly well, I have lost the need to verbalise thoughts and only dream in concepts of language. All the same, during the long hours I spend in my car travelling to and back from work, it often happens that a thought occurs in my brain and if I need to word it out loud, it will come out in a variety of languages, admittedly French and English, but I have surprised myself recently blurting out to myself in Spanish, most evidently due to exam pressure, again! I am sure that educational psychoanalysis (if that word exists) would explain the phenomenon of dreaming in a different language as an advanced stage of language mastery where your conscience does not command your brain to produce the language. It's like the brain is on auto-pilot! And it's a wonderful feeling because from then on language learning is accelerated. Graham asks I have a little anecdote to relay to the forum. It will make the native English speakers laugh their heads off but at the time I didn't think it was funny at all. I was 19 and experiencing the real British life working as an au-pair in Bristol. To make my experiewnce even more British, I'd started seeing this lad who worked in a pub down the road. One night we were at his place, where, bless him, he'd got the candles out for a more romantic atmosphere. It got late and it was time to get some sleep. Goodie-two-shoes me thought 'we can't leave those candles burning, it may cause a fire'. So I thought long and hard about how I would ask politely if my friend wanted me to .... I got stuck, in French we say turn off (the light), so it must be blow with something after, yes, my teacher used to say that to signify the transition from one state to another you must use off. So, with a big grin on my face I asked, candidly:'Would you like me to blow off the candle?' Needless to say that the poor chap was rolling himself on the floor in complete stitches! I felt quite humiliated that he was making fun of me when I had spent so much grey matter thinking about it! Eventually he caught his breath and explained very calmly and matter-of-factly and we had a good giggle but at the time I wish I had known it meant FART. It's all part of growing up!

I have had one of the same kind, except I was at the receiving end and felt more embarrassed than my colleague who brushed the incident off in an amused manner. In short, we were at the end of a long moderating day and had reverted to speaking French when this colleague started to talk about her son whose 'gland' wasn't functioning properly. I thought I was going to die of embarrassment for the poor lad who was at the height of puberty at the time. I couldn't quite get my head round the reasons why she would want us to know such intimate details about her son's shortcomings... Eventually realising by the look on my face that she meant 'glande' we laughed it off, yet I was left to explain in English what I had understood which was even more embarrassing, but my colleagues were impressed by the extent of my knowledge of anatomy vocab!!! PHEW!

After a very long absence and getting my password back, I am back onto this forum!!! Graham, it seems we are again revisiting some old grounds with this debate about learning languages. It seems that those who do know languages are the only ones to see the benefit of such learning. Do you think we should consider the problem from a different angle? I have been thinking for some time that we are the victims of some frustrated, hung-up people who'd rather adopt the 'politique de l'autruche' than face their own short-comings. My poiny being that it is easier to bring every boody down to your level than raise yourself to theirs... Another point I wished to make on this forum was the inconsistencies of governmental decisions in terms of language learning and language teaching. The appearance of the KS3 Strategy seemed an excellent opportubity to make (or try to make) languages accessible to all within a well-thought framework. I read most of it to prepare for an interview, and for once I was quite impressed. The problem is that the next step has been that languages are basically being scrapped from the curricular map for the over 14s. Education in general and languages in particular are suffering from the lack of governmental stability in terms of Education Secretary. I've only been teaching three years (4 if you include my PGCE) and I'm already down to my third Ed Sec!!! As for a world where every body speaks English, I can only disagree with such statement. First of all, some English-speakers should start by speaking English properly - every day I, the foreigner, have to correct my pupils, the British, on how to speak English properly, let alone another language.... Furthermore, I can definitely say that learning a language, or more than one, helps develop a more analytical and comparative conceptualisation of language in general which in turn helps speakers master their mother tongue better. I am currently learning my fourth language and it's never been so easy! I admit that it's taken me 16 years to get to that statement but it was worth it. Needless to remind ourselves, as well, of the benefits of language learning in terms of understanding different cultures and customs, the promotion of tolerance and acceptance, concepts which should be at the heart of the political debate, rather than rejection, ignorance and intolerance as some of our politicians and/or TV-presenters have suggested on air.... I have been away for a long time so I had a lot to say. Hopefully I will return sooner than in 6 months' time this time....

I despair... I can only draw a paralell between what David says and the literacy/grammar problems encountered in British schools today. As you know, English isn't taught in British schools through grammatical analysis (unlike French and German in their respective countries). There has been an effort in the past few years to address the issue, unfortunately, for a large part, grammar has to be taught by teachers who were never taught it, therefore leaving pupils quite confused about what they have to learn... This then has a dramatical knock-on effect on the teaching and learning of languages where we rely VERY heavily on pupils' grasp of grammatical terms and systems. I'll illustrate my point with a quick example taken from my personal experience ! I teach a top set Yr 11 French. They are very bright pupils and for the large part master the grammatical part quite well. However, when faced with questions concerning the difference between the Perfect and the Imperfect (passe-compose and imparfait) I needed to revert to grammatical terms, however, my pupils got even more confused when I told them that the Perfect is a COMPOUND tense consisting of an AUXILIARY and a PAST-PARTICIPLE. It totally threw the poor things!! I then found myself totally unable to explain in plain English what they meant!! I can only hope that it may get better in the (not so distant) future...

Would the issue of teenage pregnancy be class induced an economically motivated? It saddens me that children are brought into this world not out of love but because of boredom, lack of professional prospect and as a way of getting an income. What future have they got? I am not implying that the mothers don't love their babies, but I am slightly doubtful about the family structure which those children are brought up. I know that I am generalising but I can't see mother and father staying together after the birth. Do you? And I am not even blaming the father!! I have a pupil aged 14 1/2 who has a 4 1/2 months old baby. The mother only kept the baby possibly because she couldn't quite understand what other choices she had. My boy's mum offered to take the baby in and was turned down by the mother's mother because they were likely to get a better house because of the baby. Now the baby's mother is totally disinterested and my boy is desperate to be a good dad, and he is! But how is the child going to cope later (say in his teens) if he hasn't got his mum around?