In It Together: Collaboration and Primary Languages in MATs (1/5)
Kate Percival is the MAT lead at Primary Languages Network
Managing Primary Languages Across Multi-Academy Trusts
Part 1 of A five-part strategy for trust-wide consistency, impact, and sustainability
What does collaboration look like when it comes to primary languages and MATs? Having been asked to deliver training on this recently, it’s something I’ve thought about a lot!
Language learning itself is about communication and empathy with other people. Collaboration, therefore, is at the heart of everything we teach. It’s actually pretty hard to learn a language in a silo. We need other human beings to practise our craft, other teachers to exchange ideas with, other subject coordinators and schools to network and skill-share, and other members of our wider communities to be able to celebrate and fly the flag for languages. Collaboration is key.
It begins in the classroom
Every time you ask your pupils to discuss with their talk partners, ‘ping-pong’ vocabulary back and forth or ‘work in a group’ to prepare a short presentation, you are encouraging collaborative learning.
These are not only effective teaching methods in practice but you’re teaching pupils about how to work with others, an essential social skill for life. A skill any effective MATs want to promote curriculum wide.
Coordinator support
Now let’s think about your languages coordinators in your MAT: often, they are leading a foundation subject on their own, which can be quite a lonely role.
Less lonely if you lead the subject with another colleague; someone to bounce ideas off and split the load. Even better if you have the opportunity to network with other subject leads across your family of schools.
The advantage of being part of a MAT
The beauty of Multi-Academy Trusts is that there is a ready-made network of practitioners who can support each other and benefit from timely collaboration. What may feel like a barrier in one context, another school may have a solution for. Where common challenges exist, focused professional development can be tailored to address these collectively. This trust-wide approach saves time, builds consistency and ensures expertise is shared.
Ongoing professional development
I’ve been privileged to lead professional development for groups of language coordinators on a wide range of pedagogical and leadership topics. These include upskilling in basic Spanish and French phonics, boosting confidence in MFL subject knowledge, skill-sharing workshops on assessment and moderation as well as exploring effective adaptive teaching and SEND practice.
This kind of support has the greatest impact when it is built into a planned annual programme of training. Even just a half-day session per year can inspire and lead to meaningful change. Adding an additional twilight or series of twilights can further deepen this impact. For example, if a trust-wide priority is assessment of foundation subjects, holding a half-day development session on tracking and assessing primary languages with some practical support built in would be a great opportunity. After schools have had chance to implement strategies, a follow-up session on moderation would align practice across the trust.
As a MAT you should be looking for opportunities to run CPD and trainign for teachers and cooridnators of pirmary languages, these will be invaluable to progress and achievement in the subject!
Consistency of understanding
A Primary Languages Network professional development session, with a specific focus or priority, typically brings together educators at every level to share ideas, resources and best practice. This joined-up approach allows practitioners clear communication with colleagues beyond their own school, allowing them to leave feeling not only a boost in their understanding but in also in their confidence levels to teach and lead languages effectively.
Resource giveaway
A key resource I like to share in my subject leadership sessions is a ‘Subject on a Page’ template (see below). This concise document sets out the vision for the subject and how it should be implemented, in a format that is accessible to all staff. Coordinators can adapt the template to reflect their own school’s context while aligning with MAT-wide priorities. This would be a really useful document to be shared MAT wide, with coordinators and SLT, just so everybody is clear on the expectations and demands of Primary Languages.
This strong focus on both teacher support and curriculum development can form part of your trust-wide improvement plan, ensuring all schools within your MAT are working towards a common goal.
Kate Percival, MAT Lead and MFL Consultant, Primary Languages Network