So... I am a wee bit nervous. On Wednesday I am gate-crashing a meeting of our feeder primary head teachers to gauge their response to some collaboration with regards to MFL teaching.
I've not done anything like this before so it will be good for me! However I am a squillion times better at writing than speaking, I get so tongue tied when I am nervous! Not a great trait for a teacher... so i am going to get my thoughts down here, and then hopefully some kind people might give me some feedback.
This has come about as my language leaders are running a taster day after half term, and I realised pretty quickly that we have zero idea of what language experience they have had at KS1 or 2.
I am actually quite surprised at myself that it has taken me this long to realise that is is a huge issue. I suppose only teaching KS5 and the odd bit of y8 for the past couple of years I have been a bit out of the loop. Attending a talk at Ililc about primary langs reinforced this point. Anyway, I have decided to seize the moment and do something about it.
I really want to get 2 main things out of the meeting on Wednesday.
Firstly I want to get an idea of the current status quo to enable me and the LLs to plan and deliver a successful taster day. We intend to teach some food and opinion vocab, taste some French food, the create some display materials using the new language. This all depends of course on where they are at already.
However, my long term aim (dream?!) is to set up a group for the teachers involved in leading and/or delivering MFL in primary schools. We could meet on a termly basis, do a bit of show and tell, share ideas and resources we have found, talk about what support we can provide etc. I am only too aware that this is not a scenario where I am the all-knowing fount of knowledge and my primary colleagues will be lapping it up. Far from it! In fact, I would love to get in to some KS2 lessons (great twitter suggestion, thanks) to see what happens there. I think it could be a really mutually beneficial thing, especially seeing how independently primary pupils tend to work.
Eventually I would like to work towards a very flexible/loose common curriculum that would work whether French or Spanish was taught at primary, so that we would know where to start with our y7. I appreciate that that is quite far away maybe, but just knowing what they currently do would be a huge bonus frankly. English or maths wouldn't dream of starting to teach without knowledge of KS2 and info from primaries, neither should we!
So in terms of the meeting, I thought I would devise a questionnaire (paper and online) to gauge where things are at now. This can be filled I later by the relevant person. I also plan to suggest the support group, with a first meeting after half term so get to know each other etc, with a view to starting properly in September. I would suggest that my long term aims are to support each other with language teaching, and to work towards a long term goal of smoother transition to KS3 via initially better knowledge of primary MFL experience, and eventually, some degree of common curriculum. I would like the names and contact details of those responsible for MFL so that I can make a start on the above. Does that sound reasonable?
If anyone has any feedback or suggestions to make I would be eternally grateful. THANK YOU SO MUCH to all the lovely twitter folk who took the time to make suggestions the other day.
I will of course be reporting back!
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