I'm Carolyn Robson, I'm the Executive Headteacher of
Rushey Mead School in Leicester, which is a teaching school.
I'm really excited about aspects of the national curriculum that
will roll out in September, particularly relating to
modern languages and the fact that it's coming back into primary
schools again.
I think, against a lot of European countries, we've been missing out and it's
very exciting that most children will be now studying at least four years worth of
modern languages before they come up secondary school.
I think we've got opportunities to make something really meaningful and
really improve their skills.
Some primary schools, all through the last few years, even when it wasn't a compulsory
subject, have still been teaching it and sometimes teaching it very well.
But, a lot of primary schools are feeling quite nervous.
They don't necessarily have teachers who have got
the sufficient skills and confidence to deliver.
What we've done locally is we've set up at primary
modern languages network hub. We've got 19 schools involved in
that and it was supported by a grant of £10,000 through the
National College Teaching Schools.
We have had about two or three meetings to date and we've got specialist leaders
of education in modern languages who are then going to work individually
with schools in supporting them in finding the best resources,
sharing best practice, building their confidence levels,
upskiling teachers and just making it all fit together much better.
In addition to that, with the British Council,
we're doing a pilot where we are using foreign language assistants who
traditionally are used in secondary schools but we are actually going to
use them as well, with a group of about half a dozen primaries.
We're starting that on February 1st and running it through to May.
That's a funded project but with a view to rolling that out in the autumn.
That will give us 12 hours, shared between those schools,
of a foreign language assistant from France or Spain working with
their schools to actually find interesting ways of introducing
the subject in the schools.
The British Council are one of the main agencies for getting foreign language
assistants into Britain and there is a fairly simple application process.
Normally schools have to pay quite a low-level of salary to have
a foreign language assistant, but in practice, what schools tend to
do is club together and then they appoint somebody between
a group of schools who will then work across a number during each week.
The embassies also can support in different ways.
The French, German and Spanish embassies in particular have got
support generally with language and some really interesting resources.
Most of which are free and they will also come out to schools and
support them with interesting ideas.
I think, for primary schools, there is actually a wealth of
information, resources and support available.
I think we see our role in the teaching school as just
pulling all those things together and sharing them with people and
then individually supporting them with their tailored needs.
It's a very exciting time.
I think, for primary schools, when they're trying to think about delivering
a whole range of new national curriculum areas, for example computing, which is
a brand new subject, it's probably a bit daunting.
But, it is exciting because we've got control and we can be creative
in our design.
I think there are some things that need to be worked through around
assessment and around transition issues. For example with languages,
one of the first questions that primary schools ask is,
"If we teach French, is that going to be the subject that the
secondary schools will deliver?
What if we are rather ambitious and teach Mandarin or
Arabic or something different? How will we actually then insure
there is progression?"
It's a good time for just having discussions and being
a little bit brave and being innovative.
There is not one answer and I like that.
I think the schools generally feel there's an element of
freedom but also an element of challenge, in that,
the curriculum is certainly demanding and it should bring about some significant
improvements in lots of areas.