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Rotherham Primary Languages Conference 2009
Region: Yorkshire [More Yorkshire news...]
Posted on: Thursday, 26 Nov 2009
To most KS2 primary school teachers the thought of teaching languages is a scary prospect. Without being a language specialist how can they teach a language effectively that they haven’t touched for years and where do they start? To address this issue Amy Parry and Vicki Margrave from Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council, in conjunction with Links into Languages Yorkshire and The Humber, organised the Primary Languages Conference 2009 to help tackle this issue head on. On Friday 16th October, a group of 70 primary teachers, interested secondary teachers and key speakers gathered at the Rockingham Development Centre in Rotherham. The day commenced with a warm welcome from Amy and performances by children from Thornhill Primary School, Kiveton Park Meadows Junior School and Herringthorpe Junior School. These schools were representing Rotherham as winners of the RotherVision Song Contest an annual event which won European Award for Languages. It was a lively combination of singing in both Spanish and French with exuberant dancing which was very enjoyable to watch and served to highlight the huge potential that primary languages has to offer. Guest speaker Nigel Pearson, from CiLT, kicked off the official start to proceedings with his presentation on New Developments in Primary Languages, which focused on motivational ways to engage young pupils in learning languages, through kinesthetic and visual learning techniques. All the Primary school delegates were up on their feet joining in with his innovative and fun ways of teaching languages. His presentation tackled the issues of the KS2 Framework for Languages and The Independent Review of the Primary Curriculum. He also promoted the primaryLanguages website, run by CiLT, which has a wealth of resources and support and guidance for primary school teachers who are undertaking the teaching of a language at KS2.
After a tasty break of French croissants and pastries, Chris Wakely, from the Devon Learning and Development Partnership, started his session on Combining Daily Physical Activity and Language Learning in the Primary School. As the title suggests, Chris put forward the case for including Daily Physical Activity (DPA) in language lessons, as well as making learning languages cross-curricular. Through physical games and activities, using song and dance, he illustrated how fun and interesting language learning can be made, whilst at the same time keeping fit and stimulating young minds. He extended this theme in one of the workshops that followed his main presentation. In this workshop, the conference delegates were once again on their feet participating in the ‘Savez-vous planter les choux?’ French aerobic activity, as well as activities based on music, dance and intercultural understanding, which involved the teachers copying a salsa routine. The Devon Learning and Development Partnership have produced a series of Take 10 resources that enable primary school children to practice their French or Spanish whilst taking part in DPA.
Before and after lunch a carousel of 3 workshops took place including the aforementioned session by Chris Wakely. Also featuring was a workshop on E-Twinning with Sarah Stead from Adel Primary School, an ambassador from the British Council. She tackled the topic of international partnership and how teachers can join e-twinning online and become involved in shared projects, online chat, message forums and ultimately foreign language/ project visits. The third session, called ‘Small Beginnings CLIL’, was delivered by Claire Couzens from Silverdale Language College in Sheffield. This was a highly inspirational session focusing on Content Language Integrated Learning (CLIL), highlighting the way in which languages can be immersed in cross-curricular study, from teaching history in French, to teaching the background work to art in Spanish. Her session gave clear, concise examples to inspire new primary language teachers on how to deliver such lessons in a foreign language. This really builds on vocabulary from a young age and provides a fun and relevant way of learning languages whilst at the same time incorporating many elements of the KS2 MFL framework. Examples of Claire’s excellent work can be found on the primary languages website mentioned earlier.
The day was rounded up by a short plenary back in the main conference room. Feedback from the event was fantastic with all delegates leaving with a positive and more confident approach to teaching languages at KS2 level. Many thanks go to Amy and Vicki for such a successful event.
