Evaluation of the Key Stage 2 Language Learning Pathfinders

3.4.5. Links to KS3 Framework/National curriculumVery few schools mentioned any link with the KS3 Framework and a minority of schoolsmentioned NC levels which are sent on to the secondary school.In some cases secondary schools were responding to work done in primaries byreorganising pupils into sets. For example, in a cluster where the secondary teacher visitedto teach, setting had been achieved because she had taught all the Year 6 classes from fiveschools. As a result she reported a significant difference in what the Year 7s had achieved:‘Year 7 are used to speaking to each other in French: there’s no “Why do I have to doFrench?” They love it. Last year I knew exactly where the children were, we had a list ofvocabulary and topics that the children had done and they had tests in June and NC levelsbefore they came up’ (secondary teacher).In the second year of the Pathfinder she was teaching Years 4, 5 and 6, so setting themwould be more difficult as she did not have personal knowledge of the pupils, although testswere still planned. In another Pathfinder the secondary school in which the secondary ASTworked now set Year 7 much earlier, as they had found some children were disaffected.However, they had not grouped children into ‘primary French and not primary French’ since,although some children had not learned a European language, they were skilled atcommunity languages and were in fact able linguists. In a further Pathfinder, 2005/06 will bea pilot year for transition, used to explore the process of setting in Year 7. In future pupilswith previous languages experience will be identified and their performance in the secondaryschool’s Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing assessments will be monitored. Pupilswould be ‘graded according to merit’. As a consequence, it might be necessary to run aspecial grouping. In one Pathfinder a secondary school was taking the top set, regardless ofwhether they had been doing primary languages, and accelerating children into a GCSE inYear 9.If the potential for grouping is not available, secondary departments will need to developeffective differentiation strategies to cater for the range of different experiences:‘I have spoken to one secondary teacher who reassures me it’s not a problem when childrengo into that particular school; they are quite well used to having differentiated abilities onentry at 11.’ (primary teacher)96