How to tell if your primary languages scheme of work is holding you back
When asked about what were the signs of a primary school that is thriving with its primary languages, Bianka Zemke, HMI Ofsted lead for languages stated immediately
‘It should be felt within the fabric of the school’
A statement that could mean a thousand different things, hard to define, but easy to see when observing.
At PLN we observe many schools that demonstrate outstanding practice, and it comes in many forms
But one thing is similar between all, the school loves learning languages, you can tell when you walk the corridors, and listen to the register.
There are no hidden secrets, or quick fixes, and it always centres around the scheme
Schools that don’t thrive at languages, think its an impossible task, juggling too many plates, and trying too hard to make little momentum or impact
They look at schools that do thrive and think, its because of the teachers, or the kids just love learning languages at their school, or they have the budget to be able to afford it.
It’s none of those things, in our experience, all kinds of schools succeed. And their starting point is the least important factor.
You are looking the wrong way
When looking at solving problems, I often use the ‘Law of opposites’. A simple yet very effective way of getting out of a rut of thought. If you can’t think of how to do something, think of how NOT to do something first
For example, if you want to save money, think to yourself, how do I NOT save money, create a list and then do the opposite. It’s much easier to see what not to do, then what to do.
Because often you are doing what NOT to do. Back to primary languages, using the Law of Opposites
Here are some things NOT to do, if you want your Primary Languages to thrive
1. Be over-reliant on CPD for your staff
If you require to train your staff multiple times a year, or even multiple times at all, then it isn’t going to work. It will burn out your staff, and any changes to your staff will leave a big gap in understanding.
Just imagine if this rule applied to other subjects like PE or Music. How much extra training would your school need, in order to deliver the foundation subjects.
Contrary to common belief, if your staff need constant training outside of the classroom, then your scheme of work is not fit for purpose.
If you want your school to thrive, you need a scheme of work that is fantastic, that gets all staff teaching, with minimal CPD.
You want languages to be fun. Fun for all, students, teachers, SLT, kitchen staff. Languages needs to be loved and if the scheme of work is too difficult for your staff to use, sooner or later, it will fall by the way side.
2. Focus too much on writing
You’ve finished the year, and the books look incredible. Full to the brim, with worksheets and progress. You can’t wait for SLT to see what you have achieved.
But there is something looming in the back of your head. Just don’t ask the kids anything! Writing is important, but it’s only one-quarter of what’s required.
When an inspector comes into your school, they aren’t just going to look in books. They want to see kids saying hello to you and their teachers, they want to ask children what animals they remember. They want to hear songs, and conversations, and want to hear kids confident enough to make mistakes!
They want to see confidence, a can-do attitude, they want to see proper language learning. They want it to be fun, dynamic and engaging. Now, we do hear you, having the writing evidence is essential, but only that is merely just surviving. We want you to thrive, we want lessons to inspire.
Primary languages is a golden opportunity to spark your children’s curiosity in opportunity and that skill transfers through the whole of learning
3. Assess too much
When the HMI lead inspector spoke at our network session, of the 35 minutes, she spoke for approximately 45 seconds on her thoughts on assessment. That’s it!
The main thing that was highlighted was
‘Are your kids getting better’
Not, have they met expectations, have they completed their 6 yearly assessments, are they on track to progress.
The only thing that OfSted care about with assessment is, are they improving? Assessments are an effective way to demonstrate progress, but if you are doing an assessment every module, then it all becomes a bit too formulaic, language learning is meant to be fun, it is meant to be experimental.
If kids know they are going to be assessed on everything they do, it rips all the excitement out of the learning. Your scheme should allow you to demonstrate progress of learning in other ways, in all 4 of the skills, and through vocab, grammar and phonics, without assessment.
I still remember the primary language songs I learnt for a school performance in year 5, I can’t remember anything on any test I’ve ever done. Make it meaningful, and focus on demonstrating the children’s progress. If your scheme doesn’t allow you to easily show progress, without assessment, then it’s not good enough
In order to make lasting change to your primary languages, you need to adopt a thrive mentality to your coordination. A survive mentality, will always produce just that. Survival. Which is fine, but it will never be fantastic.
You need a scheme of work that makes every teacher engage and enjoy, without overtraining them, or undermining their teaching ability. You want them to make it their own, whilst quality is still assured and this is something we aim for at PLN.
If we wanted schools to survive with languages, we would have stopped evolving years ago. Powerpoint and audio file schemes with hours of CPD, is a thing of the past. It doesn’t work for non-specialists long term, and it costs well too much for schools. It’s a rip off!
We help schools transform, enjoy and progress in their primary languages without continuous training or £1000’s. We focus on making the scheme fit for purpose for every teacher. All it takes is a decision from yourself, to stop accepting sub-par, to stop surviving, and start wanting to thrive with primary foreign languages