Standard of MFL teaching in my son's school driving me nuts

[Ferniebrook]

My son is in an inner city comp and is generally having a very good experience. However the MFL teaching is dire. I realised this because I have A level standard Spanish and started digging around into what he is doing because his marks were so much lower than other subjects. I went into the school, wrote to the head etc. I also looked at the school's data and realise MFL progress for high prior attainers was very low compared to other subjects. Hardly anyone getting above a 6, mostly 5s. The head said they have an issue with recruitment and are trying to raise standards, but know there is a problem.

The Spanish teacher was clearly v upset I did this and then insisted that he should do foundation despite him getting very high marks in any assessments. He just did another assessment and got over 90% again and she has now conceded he should do higher. However, I went over his paper and he did a good job, but there are errors in it which she has not bothered to correct, really quite basic errors to be honest. I am so cross about this and that she is letting the children down but I can't complain again because I know she is being vindictive and will probably say OK he has to do foundation (or give him behaviour points which he never got until I complained). Homework is sporadic and there are often mistakes in the homework or the task doesn't make sense.

I am already giving him a lot of support at home and thinking I might go back to the head end of the year with examples of incorrect marking. Any thoughts? So sad that it has come to this for MFL. No wonder vast majority can't wait to stop.

Needed a vent! Thanks for reading

My DC school have 2 MFL teachers in the whole school. It is 180 kids per year. That's why MFL is only an option in Y10-11. Maybe your school will go that way. I imagine they are not offering A level either.

It doesn’t a have a 6th form. Yes they may well start offering it as an option only. Glad that dropping it wasn’t an option for DS

MFL teacher here.

I'm the only MFL teacher in my school with a degree in the language that I teach. One colleague has got AS Level and another has GCSE.
They are both timetabled to teach that language in KS3, despite having poor grammar knowledge, albeit lots of enthusiasm. The one with AS will be teaching Y10 next year.

I don't have capacity to help my colleagues with basic language knowledge - they are being put in an impossible position, and doing their very best.

When it came to options my only rule was that they had to do a language! I didn't mind about anything else and they had 4 options so plenty of other choices.

Teaching with a GCSE must be a nightmare, I am having to check things etc with a A level (although it was a long time ago).I suppose you keep one step ahead

Update on this thread after all the kind advice. DS has worked hard on Quizlet, past papers, grammar. Got a 5 mid last year on foundation, solid 5 end of last year on higher, just got a 7 in the mock! Am delighted. He is even saying he might do A level. Hopefully he can get a 7 in real thing. Everything crossed.

7 in the mock is fantastic. Well done.

thats great news ! Kudos to him . It’s great he’s thinking of taking his langs beyond GCSE :)

That's great news @Ferniebrook and really shows that progress can be made if a student is keen. I think your knowledge, even though you have played it down on this thread, must have also been a huge support to him so well done to you both. A level Spanish would be great!

Well done @Ferniebrook and your DS.

I agree with everything you say , I’m appalled at the MFL in this country.
Similar experience in our house .
I ended up teaching my DD and some of her classmates when I found out her “teacher “could barely string a sentence together in Spanish .

it was ridiculous… one day in school the teacher said to my DD “ ask your mum “ when she asked a question 😩🙄

That’s great! Are there other teachers at the school who teach Spanish A level?!

His school doesn’t have a sixth form so he will move.

Well done Ferniebrook's Ds! Great news. Very exciting that he's considering A Level!
I had a super proud moment today when one of my year 13s said she had applied for Geography with Spanish! I must be doing something right, even though I am their only teacher. All is not lost with MFL.

It’s all very well saying “don’t put up
with it” but what’s the school supposed to do if they can’t recruit competent teachers? They can’t magic them out of nowhere. This is the cold hard reality of the teacher shortage.

I did MFL at uni. I think it’s a real shame but a reflection on how difficult it is to recruit teachers for MFL and to some extent other subjects. I feel very lucky in that our school seems well organised yet many of the parents seem to think it’s a waste of time. Certainly I am a rare parent in actively encouraging my son through it, I’ve got him addicted to Duolingo which helps!

a few years ago his secondary school out of 300 kids per year only about 15 did any MFL for GCSE which I thought was shocking! Luckily it is hugely better now

Sorry for not RTFT but congrats to your son

It’s totally endemic. A lot of parents laugh off their child being ‘bad’ at MFL but feel it is irrelevant. They weren’t bad they just didn’t have a proper chance. They quit as soon as they can, few do A level, even fewer University and so the cycle goes on.

When I was at school if I had a dodgy teacher, my DM got me a tutor. That was just how it was then. It worked fine.

I've taken my DS out of school entirely because things were so bad.

DS Just did very well on his mock! He wants to do A level but I don't think he'll be able to. It's not about teachers, it's having enough interest. They have the teachers but they need 4 students to take it, only 4, but they will not get 4. They have not had sufficient interest to offer Spanish or French for 2 years now. DD wants French. Courses sounds so good. They get to do a book and a film. But they will need to move school for sixth form if they want to do their MFL and they are not keen to do so. The school has so much going for it, just this one thing, and I think it's the parents. Such a shame.

Only four? I am supposed to recruit 10 for them to say it is viable. I hope your Ds's school gets the four they need for him to be able to do it. Best of luck!

@PrincessOfPreschool the A level indeed is very good. YY book and a film and some really interesting topics (same for German).

My DD took French A level and was one of two. And in fact she switched to it after a week of something else – up to that point they had been running it for one student. I do suspect that they were keen to run it as otherwise there would have been no one taking any MFL A level at all and the school offered three MFLs.

Honestly I’d drop it with the school and get him a tutor if it’s really important to you. The teacher obviously isn’t as good as you’d like. Agree they’re letting down the kids but I don’t think you alone will change anything.. just do the best for your son!

The rot was setting in 50 years ago. I taught French and Spanish in 4 schools. I was the only honours graduate in each. I left after 14 years. I was the last of the 50+ who had trained to leave.People who had barely scraped an A level then gone onto Teacher Training College were teaching A level. 30 years ago my son was bringing home work sheets full of mistakes. His school was "outstanding". Needless to say the same school still can't run any language A level classes. Again despite being ' outstanding ' the inspectors thought modern language teaching was poor. I know of no school which is prepared to list the qualifications of its staff. But perhaps this is what is needed if the true extent of the problem is to be revealed.

That is what I have done. OP was ages ago. Not the tutor, I helped him myself…