A network for all who teach languages to children

Language Co-ordinators

Information

A place to gather together resources for Primary Languages co-ordinators

Members: 57
Latest Activity: Feb 28

More and more members of Talkabout have been asking for help to write policies, action plans and even entire schemes of work. People have been really generous in sharing their work too, but I am hoping this space will bring it all together and make it easier for people to find. I am also hoping to get a wiki or similar off the ground for us to store links and uploaded files. If there is something you would like to see in this group area - please let me know - and feel free to use this space as you wish! Here's the wiki - a work in progress - please contact me if you'd like a password to edit/add to the pages.

Policies & Action Plans:
So here is a quicklink to policies and action plans discussion and files. Also the wiki now has a page especially for policies with links for assessment, transition and planning including mixed-age classes.

Supporting Colleagues:
If you are involved in staff meetings or INSET you will find the free resources on the Training Zone invaluable. All the videos, transcripts and examples you could ever need!

Another post with a powerpoint resource to support non-specialist colleagues is here. As I gather all these together I shall start to enter them onto a wiki and would be grateful for any contributions you feel you can make.

What to teach:
Discussion about which languages to teach across a school: Advice over how many languages and which ones

Planning:
Rolling program for a whole KS2 class. Kingswear 2year Rolling Scheme of Work for Mixed.doc and explanation Explanation of Kingswear 2 year rolling program.doc

Discussion Forum

Where are the Primary MFL jobs advertised?

Started by NoeliaAR Mar 22, 2012.

Spanish staff training INSET - ideas please! 1 Reply

Started by Sara Goyea. Last reply by Lorraine Sep 19, 2009.

European Day of Languages teacher competition

Started by Caroline Smith Sep 19, 2009.

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Comment by Marianne Allen on July 29, 2010 at 20:26: Hi Jackie,
Thanks for your comment.
I agree the class teacher delivers it best - I have worked with PGCE students with very little Italian who were able to deliver great CLIL lessons because they only had one structure to deliver at a time. Our staff are not specialists but they have access to language lessons after school and they play a very active role in making CLIL work. Also we have a lot of native speakers in school as visitors so teachers can always get help if they need it. I can't believe the difference it makes to the children's confidence and ability. I am starting CLIL in reception next year....so we shall see how it goes. Year 3 and 4 has been so successful. I want to try and do a bit of research next year delivering CLIL in a language I am not familiar with, to see if it can still work.

Comment by Jackie Berry on July 29, 2010 at 7:43: Hi Marianne,

I think CLIL is great if the teacher delivering is a confident linguist and that children can get a lot from learning in this way, especially in secondary, however, it's not a model that I have used in primary very much since the main focus for us in the schools I have worked is to get all our teachers delivering language lessons to their own classes - the class teacher knows the kids best and can make those all-important links with literacy and other curriculum areas most meaningful as they are teaching them too. CLIL, while it has its benefits, can scare staff who are non-specialists as they don't have the expertise to deliver in this way, but if you have lots of confident linguists then great!

Comment by Marianne Allen on July 20, 2010 at 16:51: How many of you out there are teaching CLIL?
I love CLIL and think it helps engage pupils and staff.

Comment by Gary Macdonald on September 8, 2009 at 23:12: Hi all!
Just found this forum. Working on a job-share basis in Manchester and looking for ideas, tips and resources. I teach German at my primary school. The children love it. Problem is, we lack funds and I only have the Earlystart file to work from, which I covered very quickly. Looking also for schools who might want an MFL teacher to provide PPA cover on Mondays and Tuesdays.

Comment by Jackie Berry on November 4, 2008 at 17:58: Hi,

Just wondering if anyone else has yet been asked to monitor Primary MFL in their school yet?

Since I do most of the discrete teaching across y4-6 with a teacher from our linked Secondary teaching in Year 3 I was going to suggest that I focus on where we are in terms of 2010 entitlement and where we need to be, looking particularly at embedded elements and possibly transition from KS2 to KS3.

If you have any experience of monitoring languages at KS2 already I would be very interested to know what approach you adopted.

Thanks in advance

Jackie B

Comment by Jo Rhys-Jones on September 17, 2008 at 22:58: I am hoping to update these pages this week as got lots more links to add - so watch this space.
also if anyone has anything they've made/found they would like to share please let me know and I can put it up for you if you are having any trouble!

Comment by Laura McInerney on June 24, 2008 at 21:28: Thanks, I know that come September I'm likely to be asked to start doing all of the above. It's nice to know there's somewhere to come for support and ideas! Hmm.... and it all started with me asking could I run a French club?!?