Monday 22 June 2020

My Lockdown Load



The last time I set foot in a classroom was Tuesday 17th March.  Since then, I've been working at home, joined by my Year 8 and Year 12 daughters and my husband.

Because I haven't been in any of my three schools, my income has plummeted - I am employed by my own company and not directly for the schools, who buy in my company's services.  I don't qualify for any of the Government grants and haven't been able to furlough myself as I have still been doing a little bit of paid work alongside the mostly non-paid.

I have been endeavouring to keep myself busy during the working days (hence the picture of the busy bee!)  Here's what I've been up to:
  • BBC Bitesize - primary Spanish:  The new content for primary French, Spanish and Mandarin will be unveiled in a few weeks' time.  The main part of it will take the form of an interactive game.  This journey started in August last year when I attended the focus group for the new content.  Since then, I've been working with the team to put the content together for Spanish.  It's looking very exciting and I'm looking forward to seeing the finished result!
  • ASCL Transition Toolkit:  I've been working alongside colleagues from ASCL and the British Council, and other members of the ALL Primary Steering Group to produce a new toolkit for facilitating Key Stage 2 to Key Stage 3 transition.  My 2018 survey revealed that transition arrangements between primary and secondary schools still tend to be poor, so hopefully this toolkit will help to improve the age 7-14 language learning continuum for our learners. The toolkit is currently available in French, and the Spanish and German versions will be ready soon.
  • Camembear:  I've been proof-reading and helping to edit the Camembear resources from Headstart Languages.  If you teach French in EYFS or Key Stage 1, it's a really lovely scheme of work and I recommend it.
  • New scheme of work for Key Stage 2 Spanish: I've completed what was going to be my summer holiday job of re-writing my scheme of work for Primary Spanish (read its story here!)  I started teaching it just after Christmas with my Year 3s and beginner Year 4s and so thought it needed committing to paper!  It's all uploaded to the website, and I've rearranged the existing resources to suit the new units.  I haven't deleted any resources, but what you're looking for might be in a different place now.  I've also made a lot of new resources to accompany the new scheme and have a lot more on my list.  Check the Light Bulb Languages blog to find out what's new.
    The original scheme of work documentation is all still there, in a zipped file called "Legacy Scheme".
Hopefully I will find enough to keep me busy for the rest of the summer!