Modern languages at Secondary

[MySoreBack]

Hi all

I'm in Haringey borough and have just been to Open Day at Hornsey School for Girls where I found out that in Years 7-9 kids can only study 1 language, French or Spanish but not both. Now a search on websites of other local schools seems to suggest this is pretty much the pattern across the board. I'm very disappointed! Surely kids should be given the opportunity if they have the aptitude an interest. I found it particularly ironic when the Head was saying how wonderful it was that 62 different languages were spoken in the school (yet they can only study one!). Does anyone know if this is a national pattern and pretty much all schools would be the same?

My dd has a private tutor for languages and we have found it far better than the schools offered.
She is off curriculum which really helps as it allows her far more variety than a narrow field of topics usually offered.
During primary she is learning Italian and French, then at 11 will start German and Latin too. She hopes to take at least 4 GCSE's in languages.

Agree with others about the prioritising of STEM subjects - I'm an MFL graduate (German and Spanish, so slightly weird combination!) and at my state grammar school in the '90s you could take maths or science GCSE a year early and immediately go on to do A/S but the same wasn't offered for English and languages. As these were my strengths, I found this incredibly frustrating! I'm aware that a similar thing continues to happen in several schools in my local area.

I went on to be a teacher, but at primary level. In fact, it was the thought of having to teach German to a class of reluctant 14-year-olds that put me off doing a secondary PGCE! Many of the primary schools I've worked in have recently begun to introduce Spanish to the curriculum (as it's perceived as being an easy language to learn). It is almost universally enjoyed by the children, and they pick it up quickly at this younger age, but the government's efforts at making languages compulsory at 7+ were always decidedly half-baked. Many of my colleagues with no languages background are terrified of having to teach it, and avoid it wherever possible.

I think in our country languages are still regarded more as an useful accomplishment, in the same vein as needlework and playing the piano, than a necessary skill. Add this to their reputation for being academically demanding, the narrow and restrictive secondary curriculum, and the monoglot, small island tendencies that are deeply ingrained in our national psyche, and you can see why languages are so unpopular!

We could do maths, French & English Language early at my GDST school in the 80s. You could then go on to do Additional French or maths if you wanted in year 11. English Lit was compulsory. I did 3 sciences & Latin as well as French, French a/o & German. I didn't do any creative subjects or geography. DS has to do one MFL, 3 sciences, 1 creative, maths, 2 English & 3 others. They will all be taken at once. His options included French, Italian, German, Latin, Spanish or Greek at GCSE.

DS was brought up in Spain from aged 10 so is fluent in Spanish as well as English. In Spain he also did French, Latin & Greek to A level equivalent and this was all at a state school. He is now coming to the end of a MFL degree, having continued with French and added German to his skills. For some reason he wants to teach but the lack of respect for teachers in the UK and the lack of interest in languages may drive him abroad.

In Year 7, my DS did one term French, one term Spanish and then had to decide on one going forward to the end of Year 9. He chose Spanish and is doing well.

I wrote to the school suggesting the children learned Manderin, as this would be much more relevant in the future and they told me where to go. It is a shame that they are not embracing the new world. I am now investigating doing it with him as an evening class.

DD could do one language, Spanish or French, from Y7, and then start German in Y10. That's it. It's crap.

I'm an MFL graduate , Spanish with Catalan and Portuguese. We did Spanish and Latin with an opportunity to add French later or vice versa. That was in the late 80s. I'm disappointed when looking for DD that it's big standard French or nothing.

The other difficulty that arises, is that unless you know your child is good at languages, how do you choose an appropriate secondary school? MN is full of people with advanced primary age mathematicians, but if your child is not taught an MFL until 11 or 12 years old, how do you know they are going to be good at languages when choosing a secondary school? Hence they can end up with a school with poor language provision.

We have no history of MFL expertise in our family, at all! There was no provision at primary school. DH and I can barely speak a few sentences in a French. We found we had a good linguist on our hands when a teacher told us when DD was in year 8. Thankfully she was in a school that valued languages and it was possible to do two to GCSE level, but she would have been severely disadvantaged in some schools. Even then, no-one was accelerated in MFL as they were in maths.

My DD which starting in Our Lady Couvent High School (London) yr 7 , she will learn the French (choice between French and Spanish) and she will have to learn the Mandarin.

I am happy for her to learn French because half of our family is French.