Bristol City Council > Primary Languages

Resources
Try www.euroclubschools.co.uk

Little Languages DVD for R/KS1 includes both French and Spanish materials - available from La Jolie Ronde

Want to try out CHINESE with your pupils ? 
Try a new free online resource:    www.primaryschoolchinese.com
You can have a look and then register for a password via marcus@dragonsineurope.co.uk

Spanish Tools for Schools [QCA units support] available from CILT.

Sounds and Words support language learning through phonics - book and CD with Fr Sp and Ge from CILT £18

Languages for All CD pack about SEN pupils from CILT £5

Funding into schools for languages
The devolved funding into schools will include a grant for MFL - see the link:
http://www.languagescompany.com/news/featured-news/128-primary-languages-funding-devolved-to-schools.html

CPD 

look at the excellent website www.globalgateway.org.uk - alas, this is also going, although we are assured that the materials will be available elsewhere.  

For online courses the BBC remains a good source of quick and free language information. 
If you want to study more rigorously [Spanish] then contact the Consejeria for details of their online opportunities and residential courses.  For French conversation locally the Alliance Française remains a good choice, while you might be able to self-fund a visit to France c/o Académie Aquitaine.

Intercultural Understanding

In the future you might want to:
- employ a Foreign Language Assistant                        contact the British Council

- host a 'mini' Bordeaux assistant for 2 weeks           contact  Alix.Hughes@uwe.ac.uk - Twinnings Officer

- job-shadow your partner school teacher                  contact British Council

- do an intermediate intensive language course         look at www.primarylanguages.org.uk
                                                                                           contact the Spanish Conséjeria
                                                                                           look at courses with www.lfee.net
                                                                                           contact debbie@academieaquitaine.org.uk

- find a partner school                                                    for now, www.globalgateway.org.uk
                                                                                           e twinning: www.britishcouncil.org/etwinning
                                                                                           
Special Events

Here's a report from Vicky Duggan of Westbury Park Primary about their Spanish Day: [apologies to Vicky for not having put this item in earlier!]:

It seemed like such a small off-the-cuff remark at the end of a staff meeting about what the new academic year had to offer as my Head muttered ‘Would be great to have a Spanish Day or something…’ and then it felt like February was months away as we started a tentative conversation about which Term would be best to do it! But alas, Christmas was suddenly over and February 11^th was looming larger and larger. I duly started panicking about how to engage the whole school with a day of Spanish based activities – especially when we had a very limited number of teachers who were confident speaking Spanish!

Arancha Adan at Knowle Park was a wealth of inspiration and ideas, as was Becky Moss (Horfield). I shamelessly borrowed powerpoints, flags, dance dvds and figurines and cajoled our dinner ladies into changing their Friday fare from the very popular fish and chips to something a little more creative. Before long I had the outline of a plan. I appealed to our school community for help and 3 of our parents turned out to be fluent in Spanish and were willing to lead a language-based session, with a member of staff in with them for support with the children.

To launch the day, we held a ‘flag competition’. Children had to hand in a postcard sized flag of Spain (for the Infants) or of a Spanish speaking country (Juniors). The most innovative and well-presented flag was awarded a prize and displayed on the central board. The rest of the flags are strung up in our school hall as bunting, looking fabulous!

We booked a Flamenco dancer and guitarist to start off our morning. The infants were transfixed by her feet! Each key stage had learned a Spanish song prior to the day itself so we shared those in our opening assembly. After that the children moved to their morning workshops – each child had one language session based on greetings and numbers / simple conversational phrases. The language activities for the infants were based mainly on familiar Spanish language books – Brown Bear / The Hungry Caterpillar and 5 Little Ducks.

We also used playground games with beanbags to keep it energetic! The second morning session was based on the geography or culture of Spain itself – we had children designing and making fans, cooking tortilla, creating their own map of Spain, building a collage of Flamenco costumes, researching and presenting fact files and one lucky year group got to spend the morning with our visiting bailaora learning a few Flamenco steps themselves. We introduced the activities with as much ‘real life’ footage of Spain as we could – didn’t want them thinking that everyone in Spain walks around dressed in Flamenco dresses fighting bulls all day.

At lunchtime we ran a quiz for KS2 based on Spanish culture – competition was fierce and congratulations to the ‘Geckos ’ who got 12 out of 20! In the afternoon, children stayed in their own classrooms working on an art or dance based activity. Gaudi and Picasso style creations sit proudly on our display board next to photos of tortillas, dance sessions and our winning Quiz Team.

It was a fun day and feedback from the children and their parents has been very positive. It was a daunting prospect but the help with ideas and language lessons by Sally, Becky, Arancha and our school community made it all possible – and enjoyable! ¡Muchas gracias!