Our support for non-specialists just got even better!
Five things that we’ve done to our schemes in-order to improve support for non-specialist teachers.
The new Video2Teach lesson page is simple and efficient to use
As a company the greatest problem for us to solve has always been supporting non-specialist teachers in school. Prior to COVID The schemes of work we had provided have always been a creative and engaging outlet for confident and specialist teachers whilst also saving time and stress from their daily life. But only since the invention of’ video2teach’ have we seen significant advances in supporting non-specialists. Simply put this has been our answer to the problem providing in-class team teaching support from a virtual native speaker expert teacher of French or Spanish.
‘We believe languages are for everyone’
It has been the game changer, we have seen schools completely transform their outlook on languages not only in delivery but enjoyment, passion and progression. We want our schools to love teaching languages, we want children to love learning languages and we believe languages are for everyone, for all teachers and all learners. Therefore it is imperative that we provide a solution for all teachers to use effectively.
We wanted a solution that didn’t involve overtraining, overwhelming or under-delivering in terms of output. Video2teach (V2T) is the answer. Since the invention of V2T four years ago, it’s meteoric rise in usage and also feedback from schools has shown that this is the way, with over 12,000 lessons per month now being delivered using the video scheme. It is our most important product for schools and non-specialists, however over the last four years we have developed as a company and we wanted to make and better, more efficient version of itself.
Here are five things that we have done in video2teach 2.0 in-order to ensure the highest quality support for non-specialists.
1. High-quality audio and video
We have levelled our audio and video quality, simply put. We’ve replaced our old microphones and computer recording software for high spec microphones and also top-quality cameras, audio rendering and editing technology. Coupled now with using green screen technology and also a fresh design of the resources. The improvement of video and audio quality between version one and version two is to behold, we now have left no stone unturned with how the video is received by teachers and learners in the classroom. This is the version we always wanted it to be.
Grammar & phonics is taught in bitesize chunks
Fun and engaging themes help us inspire the children
2. Improved resources and tasks
Emilie and Irene who design the scheme of work along with Janet who created the initial primary languages network scheme have debated (well argued) over every resource in the scheme of work to ensure the most interactive and engaging learning for the children inside the class, we want our schemes of work to be active, fun and dynamic and therefore each resource and task has had an update whether it be by the way of interacting with the virtual teacher on the screen or the type of game that is played with the class and the teacher, every resource has had an improvement to it while still teaching the same progression structure. Coupled with using up-to-date video editing software and Green screen technology, we now can really have fun with how we are delivering the languages lessons. Sometimes the children will be teleported to a jungle or a planet and other times they can use certain editing techniques to explain grammatical concepts better and more effectively.
Irene giving a tour of her home town in Salamanca
Emilie giving a tour of Paris
3. Shorter video length
After speaking with schools about the V2T 1.0 we decided and agreed that the video length for some lessons in the scheme was a little too long. Therefore, in V2T 2.0 you will find the average video length being about five minutes, this is reduced from the average of twelve minutes in V2T 1.0. The lesson length is still 30 to 45 minutes, but you will find Emilie and irene are more refined in the way they explain concepts and get on with tasks. With less video length you will notice a more immersive experience with more proportion of French and Spanish being spoken, in fact as you move through each year you will now notice Emilie and Irene speaking more French and Spanish. This is deliberate. We want kids to have the opportunity to listen to as much language as possible from a native speaker to train their ears as best as possible. This results in a more engaging exciting and dynamic lesson and video.
4. Upper Key Stage 2 update
An example of a writing frame used with UKS2
A part of the scheme that we have always wanted to develop and refine has been upper key stage two where grammatical concepts start to develop and then finally reaching kids building extended sentences using verbs nouns and adjectives all in the present tense. Over the last five years we have developed resources that haved enabled non-specialist teachers to deliver these concepts without being overwhelmed; such as rainbow writing structures; tongue twister for tricky phonics; rainbow listening to consolidate listening comprehension; go fetch activities to consolidate previous learning and also read and draw and fun activities to consolidate reading however we have always wanted to refine year five and year six work. You will notice in V2T 2.0 a more project-based system where at the end of each module kids will have an opportunity to demonstrate their learning especially in year six. You may only get to teach four modules in the year and therefore it is paramount that kids get the opportunity to demonstrate how much they’ve learnt inside primary school and therefore we have restructured the year six work to ensure that kids get that opportunity. It could be a performance, a song that they write, a sports kit that they design and explain why they’ve chosen it, a café sketch with the waiter and the customer, a tour of a house as Estate Agent describing the rooms and what’s in there or opinions on why they’d like or dislike something giving reasons to justify.
You will find in the year six and five modules better structured concepts of learning that most importantly are more accessible for the non-specialist teachers
5. Simpler Lesson page structure
Resources under the video are colour coded to the lesson, Game = Green
The lesson page is where you access the videos and the resources for the lesson. V2T 1.0 had too much going on. We provided so much supportive material that it potentially got lost amongst the links so in the new version, we have stripped it all back providing just the key elements that the teacher needs in order to deliver the language lesson successful. Now the page looks brilliant and functions even better. You will see colour coded buttons that take you through to each individual resource on a separate webpage and underneath those buttons you will find key resources that help the teacher either track progress, play extra games using QR codes on tablets, language detective certificate to give to the best performer in the class and also lesson structure documentation. This more considered approach has resulted in a far more effective lesson page that all teachers can use irrelevant of how much they’ve used before.
These five improvement points along with many other that we have done to the schemes of work results in a massive improvement to what was already extremely successful solution for non-specialist teaching in primary languages. We invite you to try our resources out today, you can either try a lesson out completely free by clicking on the buttons below or you can book a free trial with us and try this in your school with your teachers by clicking on the link and scheduling a call with one of our experts.
We like to speak to each school individually as we believe delivering primary languages is a multivariant problem and this requires expert support from the start. You can book in your call any time that suits you and we will be on the other side waiting to help you. There is far more things we offer as well for schools but we know the biggest problem in schools is helping those non-specialists and this is why we’ve put our main developments on making our best solution even better.