Anyone else’s local schools restrict language/MFL choices?

[Smallwinsmaketheworldgoround]

I’m going to start with, I know schools can only teach the languages they have teachers for.

However, I’ve been looking at secondary schools and I’m shocked at how all of them only allow one language to be learned whilst encouraging multiple sciences, multiple DT/Engineering subjects, multiple arts and both humanities. At all the schools, at GCSE, the pupils can choose more than one of every category except for languages.

So

School 1
Teaches French to everyone, 2 lessons a week for Y7-Y9, and then hand picks the ones who can learn German but they take one of the French lessons to do this so will be 1 lesson of French and 1 lesson of German. There’s no thought put into the language the kids have learned in primary and that some might be more suited to one language than another.

School 2
Teaches French and German for Y7 and Y8. 2 French and 2 German a week. They then have to drop one for Y9 and do 3 lessons of the one they choose. So, when it comes to GCSE, they have only one language to choose from.

School 3
Teaches French, German and Spanish in Y7 for 1 lesson a week. Y8 then have to drop one and get 2 lessons a week of the 2 they continue with and in Y9 they drop another so only doing one language and have 3 lessons a week. Again, have only one GCSE option.

School 4
Put them into either French or Spanish all the way through Y7-9 for 2 lessons a week. No thought given to the languages learned in primary.

These are only 4 examples but all schools here follow one of these patterns. No school allows 2 or more languages all the way to GCSE options so means all kids here can only ever do one language option.

Is this the way all schools run languages now?

My kids school (comprehensive) used to teach French, Spanish, German, Latin. They now only teach French and Spanish. Due to funding cuts they've had to reduce what they can offer. Teacher shortages have probably contributed too.
It's sad and I wish my kids could have finished their schooling by about 2010. They'd have had less student debt too.

My daughter’s school does one language to GCSE. I did MFL and was slightly horrified by this. Languages were my thing at school when science, art, music never would be - being taught more than one (three!) at school was the reason.

My DD’s school only teaches French. That’s it for languages. I think it’s a huge shame but nothing I can do about it obviously

My DD's old comp does this:
french for all y7-9
in y9 a mini options allows pupils to add spanish or german

gcses you can pick french or german or spanish or french & one other.

Our school does French and Spanish. Put your preference in year 6, then that's your language.

My daughter’s school only does French now sadly. Used to have German too but the teachers who taught that have left and weren’t replaced.

There’s not really enough language teachers available to offer multiple languages to gcse in most schools. It also goes kind of generationally - (in broad strokes) older teachers are more likely to teach German (and French) millennial (ish) teachers French and new teachers Spanish. You can only really offer what you have teachers for. So when German teachers retire they can be difficult to replace. Even French is dying out a bit in my area.

is this a vicious cycle? Yes.

can secondary schools realistically coordinate with local primary schools given the extremely patchy provision of languages at primary? Not really.

Even universities are struggling as far as language provision goes. It’s a massive shame for those who like languages and unfortunately I do think MFL is becoming a bit of a niche pursuit. However I can also see why schools do this.

This was the same when I was at secondary school. This is because of timetabling- the year 10s doing languages were taught at the same time so year 10s French lessons were at the same time as the year 10s Spanish lesson for example so if you couldn't do both as you couldn't be in 2 places at once. I have no idea of the complexities of timetabling teachers and lessons so couldn't comment on whether it would be plausible for schools to change this enabling students to do both. Teachers of any subject aren't exactly abundant these days including MFL.

Purely from a timetabling view, if you have enough teachers then you can do most things. Of course, that's the problem! (I teach in an independent, everyone has to do one MFL in a 'core' slot all timetabled simultaneously, but then languages, including classical ones, also appear in the options blocks for GCSE for those who want to do multiple.)

Theres only so many hours inthe school day. Learning one language well does make sense.

I don’t really know what you mean by “no thought given to the primary school language” - do kids learn enough (say) Spanish in primary to make a difference if they had the choice of French or Spanish on arrival at secondary?

This is now the new normal but motivated DC can do one MFL really well and teach themselves a second one. Duolingo is pretty good, for example. My DD self taught Italian and went off on an exchange programme, organised by herself. You can also watch Netflix in different languages etc. - so if you are a MFL fan, tech can help where the state education may fail.

It is a shame but schools are so short staffed.

Agree with this. Most children do not leave primary school with anything more than a basic grasp of a MFL. Secondary schools have children arriving from many primaries which, even if they all offered e.g. French, would have all approached it differently.

Language provision was a significant factor in our decision to send our DD1 to independent school. She learned French through an after school French club at primary school and the only state secondary school she'd have got into didn't offer French. In year 8, she will be studying 3 MFL plus Latin and could probably continue all of them, but that would use up all her option slots.

Sadly DD2 doesn't have the option of after school French club - after school clubs seem to have taken a hammering through underfunding and stopping during covid. She learns Spanish at primary school because that's what the local secondary offers. In an area with limited school choice, coordinator between primary and secondary does seem to work.

You say “multiple sciences” and “both humanities” but they are completely different subjects, not even slightly related, so I don’t think it’s the same.

Schools have to teach all 3 sciences to all pupils to gcse level. It's part of the national curriculum so they can't not.

When I was at school only one science was obligatory leaving plenty of room for two languages.

I don’t think it is a teacher shortage issue, but a funding one, but it will eventually become a teacher shortage issue with much fewer people taking languages.

DD has 25 1hr lessons a week.
3xPE
4xMaths
4x English
2x History
2x Geography
2x Language
3x Science
1x Art subjects
1 x Tech subjects
1 x Performance subjects
1 x IT
1 x PSHE subjects

There isn't time for another language. It could only be added after school.

Locally we have one school that teaches French on Y7 & then both French and German in Y8 if you are on top set, and you can do both at GCSE.

Another teaches Spanish or French from Y7 - you’re randomly allocated a language. If you are already a native speaker of one of those, they will let you switch form so you learn the other language. They do let kids switch language in Y9 and have a special class for kids that switch so they do an intensive catch up. Then you are required to do GCSE in whichever language stream you are in. Only one language option at GCSE.

There is a shortage of MFL teachers so that’s why.

It definitely is a teacher shortage. We wanted to introduce French as a second MFL but despite advertising 3 times did not get a single applicant. So we can't offer French.

Was that a timetabled second language out of interest or an extra curricular? I am surprised that you had no applicants. What a shame.

Recently in the news; this year's number of A-level students for French, Spanish, and German were down 13%, 13%, and 17% respectively on last year's. MFL departments in unis are starting to feel the pinch. This will only make the problem worse.

Pity there isn’t the same emphasis on MFL - the uk are so poor at languages and most leave school with the very basics in a foreign language compared to their counterparts in other European countries.