Those with children at state primary - languages question

[Daisykath]

Could I be nosy and ask what the set up is at your child’s school with foreign language teaching? What age do they start, which language/s and how much time a week? Also, who teaches it - class teacher or a specialist? Thank you!
(I’m a languages teacher and wondering how much work there is in primary schools - sadly I think not much!)

Ours started in Year 3. Others will correct me but I believe the requirements are to indeed start in KS2. Of course should a school start earlier, it wouldn't do any harm but probably quite a few don't have the time or resources to do so.
Our school are teaching French. It's done by the language lead in the school and the teaching is absolutely terrible. The kids are basically given lists of words to know. They are unable to make sentences. I'd say they have done numbers, greetings, musical instruments (bizarrely in really great depths) and the odd verb in the infinitive such as 'patiner' (ice skate).

@Daisykath - there's a really good Facebook group called Languages in Primary Schools. Consider joining - this is a question often asked in the group. In short, it depends where you live as to if / how languages are delivered in primary schools.

Year 2 for dc1, year 3 for dc2. But taught by class teachers who doesn't seem to ever had exposure to native speakers or even YouTube so pronunciation can be pretty unique.

At the schools I've worked in, they start in Year 3. It's always been french. The class teacher teaches it and follows a scheme, (I've seen a few different ones) and the best one I saw had french recordings online for the teacher to play to support with pronunciation. There is usually one short lesson a week. It is one of the subjects that often gets bumped though if there's a need to catch up on core subjects (victim of overstuffed curriculum). Honestly? I'd think unlikely that there is much work. Possibly you might get somewhere approaching an a academy trust with lots of schools you could travel round? But I wouldn't want to work for an academy trust based on my experience of them.

Ours started French part way through primary 1 but I'm not sure how many hours etc.

Ours is year 3, looks like Spanish for our school

From Year 3, non-specialist class teacher, 20 mins a week (!), using the CGP Plus syllabus/powerpoints. Very ineffective!

Year 1 for us and a different teacher to the main class teacher. Once a week I believe.

French is taught from Year 3 by each class teacher. Once a week-probably 20 minutes tops.

Are you wanting to work as a languages teacher in a primary schools?

Just asked DD who is in Year 5, she said they do a "tiny bit" with the class teacher. Neither of my DC have learnt much French at all that I'm aware of.

Year 3. Dd1 had French. Ds had German.
I remember it as a lesson a week. Nothing much or great.
We had aupairs those years and it was a great language input. Children were bilingual so French/German 3rd language for them.
On the school web page I can see they now teach Spanish only taught by a native speaker. It's Church of England primary school.

Dd2 moved abroad with us. English from year 1 and German (or French) from year 5.

Year 3 taught by the class teacher. Approx 30 minutes per week.

Mine have had French from year 3. Taught by an MFL teacher from the local secondary school (all part of the same academy trust - I think she now doesn’t do any time at the secondary school but does full time primary MFL and does a different school every day)

Do you only want to work in state? My kids are at private school, they start French in reception and have a weekly lesson with a specialist.

I teach French! I’m a HLTA and teach from a bought-in scheme. It’s one lesson a week and the scheme uses a PowerPoint with links to audio for pronunciation .I have learnt a lot myself as I’m not a French speaker. In primary we teach it from year 3. By the end of year 6 they have learnt colours, greetings, alphabet, numbers to 100, classroom instructions, classroom objects , animal names, simple sentences, simple maths sums. The scheme also links to French stories and popular French culture . Our school also offers an after school Spanish club from an outside, Spanish native provider that parents can pay for.
Budgets are low so school will choose me over an additional cost even though you’d be better!

My daughter's primary started Spanish in year 1. It's taught by the deputy head, 1 hour a week. They do some sentence structure but it's topic based each term, ie they did a term on places around the town, a term on sea creatures bizarrely. Lots of songs. DD tells me they use something called Language Angels.

Budgets are low so school will choose me over an additional cost even though you’d be better!

That sums it up!

Thank you all! This is really useful. I currently teach in an independent school but curious about options in the future. As an aside, my children are in a state secondary which really struggles to recruit language teachers - there is a shortage locally but I really don’t want to go up to that age group.
Thank you all again. 😊

It's done by the class teacher and its shockingly bad, I'm afraid. Secondary is marginally better. My DD hates both French and Spanish even though she is bilingual and has a talent for languages; she is in the top set but wouldn't be able to hold a conversation after nearly 2 years. It's just such an afterthought in British schools. You're better off offering private tutoring / college / secondary school.

DC1 did Spanish briefly from maybe year 3?
DC2 French from year 5. Once a week by the class teacher, not very effective.

@ichundich how do you know it’s shockingly bad?

At my DDs Primary they were supposed to do French from Y3 but the teacher who was supposed to be teaching it didnt actually speak French and they both learnt exactly nothing.

I think it's only private schools that use specialist language teachers at primary level.

DS is in Reception. They have 2 x 15 mins of Italian a week. Not entirely sure why it's Italian particularly but I generally think all languages are good. The vast majority of his class are bilingual, usually in other European languages, in any event.

Because of what my kids tell me? E. g. the teacher doesn't know how to pronounce French words correctly, and when my DD was preparing for tests I noticed that they'd omitted a lot of the text book for year 7 by May that year. I studied French, Spanish and a couple of other languages at school / university, so I know a bit about how they should be taught and what is achievable within a certain time frame. I cannot count the amount of English people who have told me that sadly they have 'no aptitude' for languages. I think that's nonsense; it's likely due to the fact they've never had a reasonable chance to learn a language properly in order to use and love it.