Well there’s another UK Lingua event (hosted by Durham University) over! I am proud to have been part of its organising committee for 4 years now; what a privilege it is.
This year’s theme was “Learning gains” – and what an inspiring theme it turned out to be for our 1st online event!
Click here for the official website and programme.
I was sorry I could only join at lunchtime, but I had to teach my lovely class at the Petite Ecole. Luckily, recordings of all the sessions are available to those who registered (over 200 of you, thank you!).
I then chaired Helena Butterfield’s discussion group; she had chosen the topic of “retention at A level”, and below are the ideas that the group shared, in no particular order:
- don’t make assumptions about which ones of your GCSE pupils may want to carry on with a language at A level
- make sure they know that you can for instance do medicine with an A level in a language, you don’t have to do science A levels only
- make sure they know what A level learning entails – and how different and much better than GCSE it is
- make them aware of job opportunities throughout
- don’t just focus on job opportunities, exploit the cultural aspects of learning a language for increased motivation
- look into an alternative to A levels, more vocational qualifications as an alternative
- 6th formers to go into GCSE lessons
- develop links with local universities that can support
- develop links with local employers who value language skills
- share opportunities that current or previous learners have taken up, to raise the profile of languages in school and in the school community
- run masterclasses
- interesting website and project: https://www.wamcam.org/
- allow time for it all when planning the year ahead (though time can be an issue)
- International Newcastle is here to help too https://internationalnewcastle.org.uk/
- more joined up thinking to be developed from KS2 through to university
We finished off with a quiz (click here to see how you would have done): the winner got a £35 voucher, 2 runner ups got a £20 voucher each and 3 joint third will be able to attend next year’s conference for free!
Now please follow us on Facebook (click here) and Twitter (click here) to keep in touch with us… and make sure you come (back) in 2022! See you then!
Click here for links to articles about previous UK Lingua events: 2019, 2018 and 2017.