A Christmas present, and my Christmas wish

This morning I received a letter about Primary Languages from Sharon Hodgson, my MP. 

I emailed her on 6th December in response to the government's White Paper "The Importance of Teaching", expressing my concern at the lack of clarity, or indeed any word at all, about the future of language teaching in KS2.  I also emailed the address provided for feedback to the White Paper, I emailed Michael Gove, and I emailed Nick Gibb.  Sharon Hodgson is the only one from whom I have had a response.  Not even an automated response from the others to say that my message has been received.

Ms Hodgson's letter has brightened my day.  She is a Shadow Education Minister, and keen that the previous Government's commitment to Primary Languages be carried forward:
"In a global economy, the country needs people who can communicate effectively with those in different countries, and the education system should recognise and support that."
She has also written to Mr Gove to ask him to reply to me, and has tabled the following Parliamentary Question to give him the opportunity to put his commitment to Primary Languages on Parliamentary record:
"To ask the Secretary of State what steps he has taken toward establishing Modern Foreign Languages as part of the primary school curriculum from the academic year beginning 2011."
She has asked me to keep in touch and has expressed an interest in visiting a class or workshop in the constituency at some point.

So that is my Christmas present.  What about my Christmas wish?  My Christmas wish is that the current Government tell us as soon as possible what they intend to do with Primary Languages and whether or not they are going to fund it anymore.  The announcement of the new curriculum in Autumn 2012 is too long to have to wait.  Primary schools need help and support now.

So I urge you, if you haven't already done so, to contact your own MP to put the case for Primary Languages.  You could always send them this ecard. 
Let's bombard them from all sides!

Baroness Coussins is coming to the north-east

Baroness Coussins, Realising the Strategic Importance of Languages
Venue: Royal Station Hotel, Newcastle upon Tyne

Time: 8:30-12:30 includes breakfast and lunch

£300 to be awarded the first 40 schools who come with senior management.

It's the biggest event for languages the North East has ever seen....It's confirmed for 2011....it could change what happens in your schools....and its got big names!

You might have heard about it on the blogosphere and we are now pleased to confirm that Baroness Coussins, Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Modern Languages will visit the North East on Tuesday 11th January.

We know how crucial it is to influence your senior management as well so this event is geared towards them too.

Baroness Coussins will be joined by:

• Richard Hardie, Vice Chair UBS Ltd. and advocate for A-level Languages
• Dr. Michael Wardle, Deputy Head and Ofsted Inspector for Languages
• Dr. Liz Andersen, Member of the National University Council for Modern Languages
• Bernadette Holmes, President incumbent of the Association for Language Learning

The event includes keynote speeches, workshops and a panel, so plenty of chance for contributing and questioning as well.

The first 40 schools who bring along a member of their senior management team will receive £300 so take this to your SMT straight away and get signed up on the website here!

We know this is short notice but as this is such a fantastic opportunity to really make the case for languages we hope you don't miss it.

If you have any queries please get in touch with Ruth O'Rourke by email or on 0191 222 5814.

Your Head of Languages will soon receive an invitation to this event to pass on to your Headteacher.

This is primarily for secondary schools but we will welcome primary schools, Further Education and Higher Education Institutes as well.

Sign up here before you venture out into the cold: http://www.linksintolanguages.ac.uk/events/2210

The Links into Languages NE team  

#MFLSAT Oldham

Yesterday I spent a most enjoyable day at The Radclyffe School in Oldham at the third MFL Show and Tell (affectionately and tweetingly known as #MFLSAT).  It was brilliantly organised by Isabelle Jones and brought together about forty MFL teachers from all over the UK (and Germany!).

I gave a short presentation about mini-books, something which I love and which I have used successfully (in my opinion) with my primary classes.  Here is my presentation:

Mini-books

View more webinars from cseccombe.

A lot of people have asked where I got the jigsaw thing in the PowerPoint.  I actually found it quite by chance while I was looking for a suitable template for the presentation.  The instructions are here, and you can access the actual template via the same link.  As far as mini-books are concerned, the most important link is the "how to make a mini-book" one.

As is usual with #MFLSAT, I left totally enthused, my head buzzing with lots of ideas.  In no particular order, here are some of the things I'd like to try:

Selecting pupils at random to answer a question
Marie O'Sullivan showed us The Hat, which you can use to select one pupil at a time.  As far as I can see, once you've selected one particular pupil, they are then safe from selection for the rest of the lesson, unless you start the Hat up again.
Dominic McGladdery gave us lots of examples of ways to select pupils at random, starting with lolly sticks with pupils' names on which are drawn from the "Mug of Misery" (as it has been christened by Dom's pupils!)  I really like this PowerPoint random name selector from Fresherschools.com as well.
I'm particularly interested in this as it is one of the things mentioned at my PM review, and one of the teachers at my school is very keen to get all the pupils alert and not coasting.

Intercultural Understanding
Something I am very interested in (see previous posts) and so I'm always grateful for new links and ideas to help me in my endeavours. 
Marie-France Perkins showed us the website of Collège les Tamarins on the island of Réunion.  A particularly useful part of the website is the "Visite du Collège", which shows photos and plans of the school. 
Suzi Bewell showed us "Ecoles du Monde", a book written in simple French and with beautiful photographs of schoolchildren around the world.  Suzi also guided us to Links into Languages's 10 minute guide to Intercultural Understanding.

Groovy Tech Tools
Kath Holton showed us some of the tools she uses in the classroom and to facilitate home learning.  Spicynodes looks worthy of closer investigation, as does Zondle.
Vanessa Parker from The Radclyffe School showed us some PowerPoint ideas.  I liked her idea for a twist on Kim's Game.  Instead of just making a picture disappear and asking the children which one it is, Vanessa suggests asking them which one they think will disappear and giving them a point if they are right.  I also liked her idea to have a bag or basket of images flash across the screen and pupils have to name all the objects.  Flypast taken one step further.

I can't wait for the next one.  Where's it to be, guys?

A Language Show in the North, part 2

A big thank you to everyone who completed the survey, which is now closed.  128 people responded altogether, and the results will be very useful in planning an event.  Here are the results:

A brief summary of the results would suggest that we would be looking at an event with the following profile:

• in the north-east
• at the weekend
• for teachers
• concentrating on French, Spanish and German
• concentrating on Key Stages 2, 3 and 4
• exhibition focusing on teaching resources, language learning and teaching equipment and educational publishers
• seminars focusing on language learning methods, creativity, ideas for speaking, using the latest technology, assessment for learning

I hope this is the kind of event that you would want to attend.  More anon.

A Language Show in the North

A few weeks ago, on a Saturday night, the MFL Twitterati came up with the idea of a North East Languages Show.  There was a great deal of discussion about it at the time, and it is something that hasn't gone away.

I volunteered to look into it as it was partly my idea and also because I have a day off each week which allows me that bit of flexibility.

This afternoon I was corresponding via email with Ruth O'Rourke, the North East Regional Manager of Links into Languages, about venues and dates, and whether we would actually get enough interest to be able to put on such an event.  We decided that before we get stuck too far in we need to gauge peoples' interest.

Therefore I have put together a survey, which you will find embedded below.  We would be very grateful if you could complete it.  The survey will close at 1.00pm GMT on Friday 12th November so that I can feed the results back to the Twitterati at the Show and Tell in Oldham on Saturday 13th.

Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey, the world's leading questionnaire tool.