Evaluation of the Key Stage 2 Language Learning Pathfinders

had considerable collaboration with outside agencies. The mood of optimism pervaded theteacher interviews during the case-study. A couple of examples suffice:‘It is so embedded in our curriculum that it will never disappear.’‘It will continue. We’re not reliant on the Pathfinder any more. We have sustainability. Staffare trained so we don’t need the visiting teacher.’ (primary teachers)Even in this local authority, though, few schools had complete plans for teaching languagesthrough KS2.Elsewhere, there had been problems. One practical difficulty encountered was a long termillness of a member of staff. This had really affected the capacity of the secondary school tosustain the work and had led to re-prioritising of duties and responsibilities. Some outreachwork suffered, therefore, as secondary teachers were clawed back to the College. Solutionsincluded more use of classroom assistants. But this one incident demonstrated the tenuousnature of provision and the need for what the co-ordinator called greater‘guaranteed capacity before setting out to involve even more primary schools and reach100% coverage’. (LA co-ordinator)In one local authority where day to day management of the Pathfinder had been theresponsibility of the single Secondary Language College, there had been real problemsabout convincing other secondary schools to get involved. The original model was to havefive secondary schools, each with a number of associated primary schools. This had been asuccessful model in the past for sports and PE in the borough. It had not worked, however,in languages. In fact, it is no exaggeration to say that the strength of opposition from othersecondary schools in the borough had taken the Secondary Language College co-ordinatorby surprise. It was recognised that the adjustments required in some schools (not languagecolleges) were rather complex and not likely to take place without better will to succeed.A ‘Building Schools for the Future’ programme in one authority was perceived to havecreated a significant amount of concern about secondary closures and reorganisation. Formany secondary schools, therefore, primary languages were not seen to be a priority insecondary heads’ minds. As a result the Pathfinder had been obliged to reduce its scopefrom the first to the second year - hardly a policy designed to deliver the hoped for expansionin the bid – in order to concentrate efforts on ‘going deeper into those primary schoolsalready involved’ (Pathfinder co-ordinator).107