Languages in the news (3)

There has been another rash of press articles about languages following the publication yesterday of Towards a National Languages Strategy: Education and Skills.  The document has been compiled by the British Academy, The British Council, ASCL, Universities UK and the Arts and Humanities Research Council.   It is a set of proposals for a new national languages strategy and is well worth a read.

There are many proposals for all stages of education.  They include the establishment of an online portal for sharing messages, information and resources called Languages UK, which they want to establish as a brand.  They would like a major communications campaign to promote languages, and want to ensure the continuation of programmes like Erasmus+.

There are also a number of proposals for primary languages:

• The strengthening of existing funded partnerships or centres, to spread best practice and help all children to access high-quality provision (SCILT in Scotland, NICILT in Northern Ireland, Global Futures in Wales, and NCELP in England.
• A new task force or separate wing of NCELP devoted to primary education, led by primary practitioners and experts, for England
• Work with UK governments to establish and implement the best approach for the primary curriculum
• Work with UK governments to establish and implement the best approach for the transition to secondary
• DfE in England should develop clear non-statutory guidance on the amount of time that should be allocated to language learning in KS2  
• In Wales, the Welsh government should recognise and specify the time allocation for primary languages in the new Curriculum for Wales 2022
• In Northern Ireland, the DE should develop and implement a fully funded primary languages curriculum.
• Require teacher education providers in England, Wales and Scotland to extend the amount of time allocated to the primary languages subject specialism
• Universities and colleges should facilitate language learning for primary education trainees, so that they have the opportunity to achieve at least CEFR A1/A2 in a language
• DE(NI) should explore teacher education qualifications for primary languages

School cash incentive to promote language A-levels, BBC, 9.7.20 

Language learning is key to UK’s post-crisis recovery, ministers told, Big Issue, 8.7.20

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Last week the DfE released the guidance for schools preparing to welcome back all students in September.  I noticed that languages were included in the list of subjects that Key Stage 3 students should be doing in September as part of their broad and balanced curriculum, but there was no mention in the Key Stage 2 list:

Given the often precarious position of languages in some primary schools, I found this concerning, and so tweeted DfE to ask if the failure to include languages was just an oversight or if it was deliberate.  Suzanne O'Farrell of ASCL replied and said she would investigate.

On Wednesday (July 8th), Baroness Coussins, chair of the All Party Parlimentary Group on MFL, stressed in the House of Lords the importance of language learning in primary school and asked for clarification.  (Time 18.49 on this video clip)  Baroness Coussins also shared the news via Twitter:

Please make sure that this news is shared with all your primary colleagues!

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