Dear colleagues,
There is so much to keep up with in education at the moment. Changes in the national curriculum, as well as in national examination structures, are likely to mean big changes for languages over the coming years and have a real impact on the work of many of our members. There is now a window of opportunity for you to respond to and (we hope) influence these proposed changes; formal consultations are open and in addition ALL is represented at many meetings both inside and outside Government where the curriculum and exams are being discussed. We need to know your views.
We have known since the summer that the Government proposes to introduce statutory languages at Key Stage 2. These proposals are still out for consultation and we urge you to respond not only as an individual, but also to let us know your views as an ALL member, so that the Association can respond on behalf of members. We have already made our position on statutory languages at KS2 clear. It is a policy that ALL supports in principle – but we know that the devil will be in the detail, in the level of support that primary schools will be given to develop their existing teachers and in the number of new primary teachers who will be trained to teach languages. Read more here about how ALL will respond to this consultation and how to send in your view to us.
The reform of the exam system has hit the headlines in the last few days. As a core subject in the EBacc, languages are included in the proposals about the new English Baccalaureate Certificates. If these proposals go ahead there will no longer be GCSE examinations in languages – they will be replaced by the new Certificates. There is more information about this on the ALL website or you can go direct to the consultation on the DfE website.
It is easy to be cynical and to say that consultation by government is simply a political exercise. We believe however that it is important that as many people as possible respond to these consultations and make their voices heard. Here at ALL, we also need to be aware of what our members want to see. Please tell us what you think about the new proposals for exams and, if the examination system is to be reformed, what you’d like to see for languages. This will help us in our discussions with Ministers and civil servants. Send your comments to [email protected].
Outside policy there are other changes afoot that will have a bearing on our subject. Hackles have been raised about the decision by OCR to review the ASSET suite of languages exams. Although ASSET is not the only option for students taking some languages for which there is no GCSE provision, the assessments have been popular in schools and teachers who have used then are concerned about losing some of the variety of languages which has been offered until now. Speak to the Future, the campaign for languages, has launched a petition in the hope of changing OCR’s mind, and is urging language teachers to sign up and show their support.
Finally, we’d like to hear from you on two other matters. The first is GCSE results. It has come to our notice that several schools have been disappointed with the overall achievement of their pupils in languages in comparison to previous years and feel that the raising of grade boundaries in languages has been overshadowed by the issues around GCSE English. If this is the case in your school,please let us know.
The second is access to subject-specific CPD. We have heard of several schools where staff have been told that there will be no funding of subject-specific CPD this year. With big changes to the curriculum in the pipeline, it is clearly essential that teachers have high quality, relevant professional development opportunities and it would be useful for us to have information from our members on this issue. Again, please send your comments to [email protected].
Linda Parker
Director, Association for Language Learning