The progress we are making,an account from the teachers.

We are drawing toward theend of another busy year for our network .It’s time to review progress and seehow our children are developing as young language learners. Of the 90 school withinthe network 32 of the schools are supported by either a visiting teacher or alanguage assistant teaching from our SOW . It seems pertinent to ask thesecolleagues what progress looks like to them in their schools across both key stages.

 I have the great pleasure of working with these enthusiastic, passionateand highly committed colleagues every academic week of the year.I asked some of my colleagues to write several sentences on progression they have seen this year ,all with a specific focus across three languages (French, German and Spanish

We meet on a very regular basis to discuss and practise language activities and as a unit of colleagues we have established a sharing and networking community....often pushing each other on!

What is very important here is that the progress described is a true simplereflection of what the children are demonstrating and achieving  atdifferent learning stages.The comments are those of  practitioners who take ideas and put them in to primary practice.

We are certain that manyof you will be able to say and identify very similar points.That’s reassuringisn’t it? 

What I identify as I read these comments is that we have gone past simple words and repetitionand the learners are becoming interested young linguists,confident that theycan listen, speak read and write and therefore communicate in another language!Hurrah! 

Key Stage One Learners: Spanish

Ana (Native Spanish speaker, QTS Primary with Early Years’ specialism). Here's her end of year report on the  specific noticeable progress she sees in KS1 this year. Ana teachers KS1 in 5 of the 6 schools where she also teachers KS2) . 

Greetings in Reception

In KS1 the main progress I can see is in the children, who  have learned Spanish for a couple of years- soYear 1 and 2 .

• They are confident.
• They link and use previous knowledge in new topics.
• Their minds are open and receptive, they enjoy and don’t feel shy totry.
• Some of my children in Reception after doing Spanish previously innursery, can independently say their names, how they feel ,their favouritecolour, the weather, days of the week, animals, numbers up to 20, body partsand follow a lesson where I mostly only speak Spanish.
• These children show how important is to start teaching a foreignlanguage in early years as their little minds are more than ready! 

Year 3 Spanish Beginners 

Joanne (PGCE QTS Primary Teacher with a primarylanguage specialism ,teaches both Spanish and French) Joanne considered  the specific  progress she has seen in her Spanish Year 3beginner class .She teaches from Year 1 to Year 6 in a local school. This isher end of year report.

Year 3 Superheroes Autumn Display

The Year 3s are just a joy to teach and the progress they have made thisyear has been impressive.

In their first year of learning Spanish, “my little Language Detectives “havewholeheartedly thrown themselves into their Language learning and have had lotsof fun trying out new sound patterns and words.  

They respond to mimes and gestures and they amaze me with the amount ofvocabulary they retain and recall and the inquisitive questions they ask. ('IfSpanish has an upside down question mark at the start of a question and anupside down exclamation mark at the start, does all punctuation go upsidedown?' I ran with a flurry to grab a handful of Spanish stories and books so wecould put our Detective sombreros on and investigate.)

Silly songs are immensely popular with my Year 3s (particular the fruitsong) and the children even ask me for links so they can practice the songs athome. They have been known to come in the following week with an accompanyingfull on dance routine!

Year 4 Moving on on German

Barbara Foerster ,Year 4 German (native speakerGerman , TA and language assistant) Barbara works in a local school as a classTA and also as the teacher of German across KS1 and KS2. Barbara’s focus isupon Year 4 children who are moving on from being “beginner” learners.

My current Year 4 class are really good atGerman. They are very interested in the language and pick up new phrases veryeasily. 
I am very pleased with the progress they havemade over the last few months - moving from simple sentences, e.g. my nameis ... I am feeling good, to more complex sentences and phrases, recallingalready known language fairly easily.
They are now able to have a  simple conversation and tell the other personabout themselves and also ask questions.

Some of the thingsthey are able to say are: their favourite colour,( and what I really likeis that using the same phrase for “my favourite” ... they can translate thatknowledge to say other favourite things, e.g. favourite pop group, singer,football star or number), where they live, when their birthday is and how oldthey are.
My aim for next year is to make them become evenmore independent !

Progress across LKS2 and UKS2 

Catherine (PGCE QTS Primary teacher with alanguages specialism).She teaches four schools, French in two schools andSpanish in two schools. I asked her to suggest one specific noticeable skill stepforward in each year group from Year 3 to Year 6  in both languages. This is what she hasidentified:

Across Key Stage 2, I haveseen children become more independent learners. 

• In Y3, children have progressed from repeatingwords and phrases to holding a conversation with questions and answers. 

• In Y4, I have seen children become able andconfident to write simple sentences in the target language.

• In Y5, children are becoming confident in usingbilingual dictionaries. 

• In Y6, children have progressed from being ableto read sentences in the target language to reading full scripts in thelanguage. 

In general, I have seen children become moreengaged and proactive in their own language learning.

What does UKS2 look like this year?

Emilie (native speaker QTS Secondary andPrimary French Teacher). She works in 6 schools and across both Key Stages.Emilie was asked to consider the type of progress she is seeing in UKS2 as aplatform that can be built upon into Year 7.Here is her report on progress inYears 5/6:

• In Years 5 and 6 children are beginning tounderstand and read longer sentences/paragraphs made up of familiar language.
• They are producing in writing and speakinglonger sentences using simple connectives.
• They have acquired language learning skills suchas looking for cognates and strategies to work out new language (i.e usingclues, context, etc.)
• They are familiar with a range of structuresincluding talking about likes, dislikes and preferences.
• They are becoming more and more confident inspeaking and have become very fluent in talking about themselves (name, age, wherethey live, etc.)

A view from the bridge between Year 6 and Year 7 

Jayne (Secondaryand Primary French teacher) teaching French and Spanish in 6 different schoolsfrom KS1 to Year 6.Jayne has considered Year 6 children she teaches now andwhat they can do that she feels does now need to be acknowledged as they enter Year 7

• Year 6 can remember so much of what they have done before!
• They are keen to reapply knowledge and show what they can do.
• In Year 6 they are beginning to extend their knowledge of sentencestructure and  are keen to know moreabout language and grammar and how to use this to communicate.
• Even in a new context it’s amazing what they can describe and how muchnew language they can add to their descriptions accurately.
• They want to plan, prepare and use dictionaries to find what they really want to say!

• In Year 7 maybe we should n’t hold the children back but let them explorelanguage more independently and apply their language skills even if it’s in anew language rather than spending a long time re-explaining what they have doneor what they can learn quite quickly .

So now we are ready to move on to next year and to enjoy working with our schools and young learners and to see where we get to next year ....??!