School not offering Spanish GCSE because it's too hard

[ModForLangQ]

DS has really enjoyed French in Yr 7 and was looking forward to doing Spanish in Yr 9. However, the school have announced they won't be offering it as the new GCSE exam is too difficult and they wouldn't be able to get the children to the required standard in two years.

Anyone else's school doing this?
Are the school being reasonable or is it a cop out?

DD did Spanish GCSE in a year and got an A (no A* in those days). She went on to become a MFL teacher. She certainly wouldn't say Spanish was 'too hard'. Most likely problem is not being able to find a teacher.

Back in the day when A's didn't exist, circa 1993/4, languages were taught and examined differently from now. That's coming from an MFL Teacher and somebody who got As in both French and Spanish GCSE.

I haven't read the entire thread but I am a Spanish teacher and I think the issue here isn't staffing but the fact that the kids haven't had access to Spanish in junior school. The new GCSE specification is a lot more difficult and I really don't think pupils could get to the required level from a complete beginner starting point in 2 years. It would require a lot more teaching hours than are available and it isn't fair to offer a course that teachers feel they can't successfully teach

Well summarised citrinelles

Why can't it just be accepted that if there was a way to do it, he'd be offering it. Awful attitude to a problem - HT can't make it work? There must be a problem with funding/increased level of difficulty or content which should be discussed. Why do you seem to want people to just accept things - things can be changed....not just accepted!

Blanketdog
why do you seem to want people to just accept things - things can be changed....not just accepted!

How do you expect this to be changed?

Well you find out what precipitated the problem - is it happening elsewhere - hence the need for a mumnet discussion is it funding/staffing/GCSE changes - you increase awareness, that awareness makes other people take note, maybe set up a petition/contact their MP/media/more mumsnet - nothing changes without awareness.

has is happened elsewhere

Oh I give up

Blanketdog
Strange isn't it

Teachers have been doing that for four years or so funding/staffing/GCSE changes, they have been called many different things (non complementary) and told to get a real job.

Its only now that teachers are being told that they should have raised awareness because it is 'suddenly a problem' within schools.

Teachers on here have made me aware of the challenges ages ago - our school informed us a few weeks before the election.

We need to keep communicating, challenging, discussing...just accepting is giving up!

I always thought it was a relatively easy language to learn. confused

What, Japanese?! Um not really. Just learning the Hiragana and Katakana alphabets (well, syllabaries, to be more accurate) is reasonably tricky. And then there are the Kanji - literally thousands of pictogram-type characters which can represent actual words or syllables within other words when combined with the other syllabaries. Not sure how that could be considered easy. Oh unless you only learn to say phrases and never learn to read. But that's not really learning the language properly.

it happens throughout the school system. new government, new syllabus/system. kids that happen to fall in the gap and have half the time on the new regime do poorly until things are bedded in.

There are literally thousands of Spaniards who emigrated into the UK with all the qualifications to teach their language to the expert level.

If the school's last Spanish teacher resigned and they "cannot find another one" perhaps they should have a look at the contract and working conditions they are offering. If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys. Just saying.

Schools don't necessarily have a lot of choice about paying peanuts, what with the very well-publicised cuts. Schools are stuffed to the gills with inexperienced teachers and cover supervisors because they either cannot find or cannot afford good teachers. Just saying.

Totally naive to suggest schools could just pay more. Schools are really struggling with funds - its no secret!

How strange. When I was at school all kids did 2 MFLs in Year 7-9, and then could pick one or both for GCSE. My school was French and Spanish, others offered German.

Everyone went to school so everyone's an expert on how schools are run! Especially people who haven't set foot inside one since they passed their A-levels (except maybe for a parents' evening or to complain about their children's teachers).

Loving everyone saying "I did O level 20 years ago and have zero useful recent or relevant experience but here is my pointless opinion on Spanish GCSE (that I know nothing about) being easy"

BangkokBlues

We've got the oppositw with ds. He's been doing Spanish in Year 7 & 8 but is moving to a school who only offers German - he probably won't be able to take a GCSE as he won't get up to standard in time.

His current school do offer a 2nd language in Year 9 but they do it by allowing double the normal timetable time (those opting for it drop 2 arts/tech subjects for year 9)

Agree that under the new specifications MFL are a lot harder.

In response to the "I did my O Levels 20 [ahem, 30] years ago" I did three O Level languages (and A Levels and part of degree) and a MFL GCSE last year (for which I got an A* ). Ds did GCSEs a couple of years ago and dd is just starting the course.

The GCSE was in some ways massively easier and someone could pass with relatively little understanding of the language. The writing and speaking was just a memory test. I have a bad memory so it was difficult for me, but a younger brain could easily just learn off by heart the required paragraphs. There was lots of "bitesize" stuff and no real building up and certainly no rote conjugating of verbs.

In O Levels you had to translate unseen passages back and forth and write a short essay - again, with no idea what would come up. I still remember my French one: A tiger has escaped from the zoo. Continue. My essay consisted of many "Au secours!"

Regarding MFL teachers. This has been discussed a lot on MN. Even with a salary of £100K it would be difficult to recruit people who were suitably bilingual (which is what people are asking for, ideally), who also understand grammar enough to teach it, and who want to live in all areas of the country, not just the metropolitan/attractive bits.

LadyInCement that's the fundamental problem. The national attitude to languages is so utterly wrong-headed, if you were bilingual enough to be an MFL teacher you could probably get a more attractive job doing something else.

This is a fixable problem though, and it's annoying that the government won't put the resources into it.

I do genuinely think that schools should be offering languages like Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Punjabi, Urdu to English-speaking British children. I think a lot of families would be interested.

As someone who did no MFL O level exams a very long time ago as I was rubbish at them, I am in no position to make comparisons with current exams.

However, I can comment on the same old arguments still being trotted out that they are somehow in demand in the jobs market. They are not, for the vast majority of people, and never have been. Maybe we should drop the obsession with exam passes and just teach some subjects for the enjoyment of them and to give children at least some break from the relentless exam-factory that is education today?

For those pupils who show promise, and have a genuine desire to progress, then formal examination can be offered. 2 hours of lessons a week could easily be covered at weekends if schools pooled resources and finance made available (possibly by re-directing resources currently expended on teaching MFL to exam-level for all pupils?)