Which language do children learn in Key Stage 2?

Which language do children learn in Key Stage 2? by Clare Seccombe


This short survey follows a discussion in the Languages in Primary School Facebook group about Spanish becoming more popular at the expense of French.  Thank you if you were one of the 436 people who took the time to respond.

The results of the survey show that French has dipped a little over the last couple of years, and that Spanish has gained by more or less the same amount.  The other languages are not showing much change.

Quite a few respondents had ticked more than one language, some of them several languages.  This implies that there are some schools which do more than one language, some of them several languages.  Can anyone shed any light on these findings?

I've used another aspect of Canva - the slideshow - to present the results, which you can see above, alongside the same question from 2018 and 2015 as a point of comparison.

Lumen's Language Challenges

If you' re after something arty or crafty to do during this period of lockdown, look no further than Lumen's Language Challenges - art and craft activities with a language focus.  Great for exploring languages, and creating a sense of wellbeing.

I've been doing them myself, and I'm going to put the results here:

#LumenChallenge1: Make a bookmark which features your favourite word or phrase in another language.

#LumenChallenge2: Find out how to say the numbers 1 to 5 in another language, then add them to the printable which you can then decorate.

#LumenChallenge3: Create a mirrored image of an animal word in another language, and decorate it to look like that animal.

#LumenChallenge4: Have a look at the Light Bulb Languages #LanguageLinks.  Choose one you like and illustrate it in your own way.

#LumenChallenge5: Print out your favourite letter from the printable, and decorate it.
In the white space around the letter, write some words in another language that start with this letter or have the letter in them.

#LumenChallenge6: Make an origami box.  Stick extra pieces onto your box to turn it into something else, for example an animal or something you might use in your home. You could also colour or paint it.  Find some words in another language to describe your modified box. 

#LumenChallenge7: Make a game of pairs (sometimes called memory or pelmanism) in another language and play it with a family member.  (This is me playing it with - and losing to - my 13 year old daughter.  You can download my game here.)

#LumenChallenge8: Make a piece of art inspired by Paul Klee's Once Emerged from the Gray of Night.  Divide your paper into small squares - 2cm squares are a good size - with faint pencil lines.

Find a phrase or saying that you like in another language, and write it in some of the boxes.
Then colour in the boxes and the spaces left by the letters to complete your artwork.

#LumenChallenge9: Make a minibook from a single piece of A4 paper and choose some words, phrases or sentences to put in it. Then illustrate your book!

#LumenChallenge10: Choose a short text, poem or rhyme in another language and create an illuminated text of it

#LumenChallenge11: Use an animation app and some objects in your house to make a short stop-motion animated film. Then provide a voiceover or subtitles in another language.