Take-up of language A-levels at local comp

[PollyGlott]

Should I be worried? We have recently received the prospectus for our local comp in advance of our daughter's application process for 2009. It's all very glossy and impressive-looking, but closer inspection reveals that - out of a sixth form year group of over 100 students - not one of them studied French A-level! And only one did German. This suggests a number of things to me - either the problem of attracting suitably qualified teachers, or that languages are simply considered too difficult and students are being steered into "easier" subjects. Whatever the reason, it appears that a subject which has shaped my own life and career (I am a languages graduate and now work as a professional linguist) is very low down on the list of priorities for this particular school.

I find this situation quite disheartening. Admittedly, take-up of languages at GCSE was not too bad, but not as high as might be expected for a school with year-groups of 220.

So am I expecting too much?

We really need to change the whole way we think about language learning/teaching in this country with some real joined-up thinking about the ways in which languages are taught right across the spectrum (from KS1 - because I think that even KS2 is too late - to degree level). Trouble is, who's going to do that joined-up thinking? It's not considered a priority by the policy-makers either, so people just tinker round the edges and the situation gets worse and worse.

Still... you can take Italian from scratch at university, so there is hope... (for me! )!

They ARE hard A levels. I was amazed at the difference from GCSE "Hello, my name isX, I live in Y etc" stuff to "Discuss how immigration affects life in Germany today" type AS stuff!

DD is studying 2 languages, Maths & Eng Lit (has now dropped History) but listening to some of her friends, there are easier options available.

She is also looking to start a 3rd language at Uni - it's great to see all the options available to them. Also linguistics looks really interesting.

DS is at a different school where they have a Mandarin club, and can do Latin, Greek, Spanish as well as French & German...

and he doesn't want to do any more than the compulsory one GCSE in French.

Pity DD wasn't a boy and could have gone to his school.