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Fresh take on French learningA textbook example of a freshapproach to language learningis being pioneered by a nativeFrench speaker at WisbechGrammar School, Cambridgeshire.Swiss-born Mrs NoemieNeighbour, who is head of Frenchat the school, has produced a newtextbook for her year nine pupilsto use – and other schools arenow starting to order the bookfor their own use.Mrs Neighbour attended a series ofContent and Language IntegratedLearning twilight sessions atComberton Village College nearCambridge and the message wasthat students learn better if thereis real content in the languagethey are trying to access.The idea was to talk to youngstersabout a concept drawn fromscience or history – or even justchocolate – and by focusing onthe message they would find thelanguage beginning to seep in.14 Independent Schools MagazineDuring the course, Mrs Neighbourput two and two together whenshe remembered a school friend– who lived in a French speakingarea of Switzerland where theyboth grew up – attendinggeography lessons conducted inGerman, and the idea of a freshtake on learning French was born.She sounded out teachers ofother subjects, including history,art, food and nutrition, biologyand geography, and agreeda joint approach involvingfollowing the curriculum usedin these other areas for onehalf-term at a time and coveringtopics such as the Frenchrevolution which are widelystudied in schools across thecountry.Initially, Mrs Neighbour, who readEnglish linguistics and literatureat the University of Lausanne,piloted the new approach witha series of worksheets for herpupils, but found that they hadno textbook to use when theyhad handed in their homework formarking.The exercise books began to bulgewith all the material building upin them and the photocopyingwas starting to become expensive– and she decided to self-publishthe complete course as a 108-page full colour textbook entitled‘Contexte’, because languagelearning was being put into thecontext of other study.In a competition staged in schoolto design a front cover, ‘Eiffeltower’, drawn by Zara Jutsum(14) in felt pen, was declared thewinning entry and the colourfulimage gives an impressionistic feelto the book.Mrs Neighbour, who combinesher teaching role with acting assecretary of the Wisbech Arlestwinning club committee, said:“Year nine is the year before thepupils choose their GCSEs and itis important to have somethingreally exciting and very interestingwhich makes them feel that thelanguage is relevant.”Initially she requested a 50-bookprint run from Peterboroughbased BookPrintingUK and afurther 65 copies have since rolledoff the presses following ordersfrom a leading independentschool and a secondary school inLondon.The message has also started tospread to other schools via the‘Times educational supplement’website, which Mrs Neighbourhas used to upload some of theresources that she has prepared.She said: “My aim is not to makemoney out of this idea, but tospread good resources and goodmethodology. People who havebeen in touch with me aboutthe project are quite enthusiasticabout it.”Pictured: Mrs Neighbour (centre) looking at thebook with two A Level French students whose yeargroup trialled the new approach. They are (left)Jasmine Clench (17) and (right) Laura Temple (16).“As well as balancing the curricular and co-curricular,we must also manage breadth and depth of study”Too many GCSEs?Before changing roles, former Education Secretary MichaelGove announced sweeping changes to A Levels, claiming thatthe current system did not help pupils to develop a “deeperunderstanding” of their subjects. He stated that from 2015, pupils undertaking ALevels will take exams at the end of two year courses and that AS Levels will remain,but as stand-alone exams that do not count towards the overall A Level. David Lloyd,headmaster of Solihull School, West Midlands, reflects...Whilst many schools welcome areturn to linearity and the loss ofdisruptive modular programmes,an important yardstick will belost. The current AS Levelsare useful to pupils, parents,schools and universities for betterunderstanding an individual’sstrengths and weaknesses andfor advising on upper sixthsubject options and universityaspirations. They also providevaluable motivation for pupils towork hard in the first year of ALevel study. I welcome a focuson teaching rather than testingand a movement away frombite-size learning, but the linkbetween AS and A Level is usefuland successful; it is certainly notbroken.What does this mean foruniversities? Well, with the lossof AS Levels at the end of thelower sixth year, universities willincreasingly turn to other factorsfor differentiating betweencandidates, such as the UCASapplication, their own entrancetests and pupils’ GCSE profiles.However, the GCSE playing fieldis not a level one with schoolsadopting a variety of strategies -some entering pupils for as manyOn the world stageas possible, others advocating asmaller number and a few callingfor a complete end to testing at16. Is there a best way?On average, pupils study 10 GCSEsbut in some cases they study asmany as 15. Whilst decisions arebest left to individual schools, theco-curriculum should share topbilling with the curriculum, and Isuspect that pupils sitting a highnumber of GCSEs are doing soat the expense of co-curricularactivities and enrichment. Thisapproach, combined with theequally dubious approach ofentering pupils for examinationsearly, is damaging to the widerlearning process. Pupils who arecapable of 8 or so A*-As are, insome case, getting up to 15 passesat lower grades. Universities arelooking for quality, not quantity,a demonstrable passion forthe subject and the confident,articulate and reflective all rounder.Sadly for some pupils, poor advicehas irrevocable university andcareer limiting consequences. Lessis often more and academically selfconfident schools enter pupils forfewer assessments.This is a relatively complexequation and as well as balancingThe start of the Autumn Term witnessed Hereford Cathedral School hosting andeducating five visiting pupils from St Catherine’s School, Sydney, in Australiaand ten pupils from Phillips Exeter Academy in America. This is in addition tothe seven students from China who are all studying for A Level at the School.Later this term 21 pupils from a secondary school in Fledberg, Germany, willspend a number of days with pupils from Hereford Cathedral School.Paul Smith, Headmaster of Hereford Cathedral School said: “By the time themajority of our pupils reach the age of 25 they are as likely to be dealingwith colleagues from Europe, America or the Far East as they are fromWorcestershire or Gloucestershire. By providing our pupils with opportunitiesto meet and study alongside international students we are helping to developwell-rounded people that are ready for tomorrow’s world. ”the curricular and co-curricular,we must also manage breadthand depth of study. Of course,it is important that we do notforce our 14 year olds to narrowtheir options too far too soon,but just how many GCSEs arenecessary and which ones shouldbe compulsory? As a nation, weseem increasingly obsessed withexaminations and league tables,testing everything that pupils do.I believe that our boys and girlssit too many exams at 16 and Isupport those schools that havecapped the number of subjectsat GCSE, encouraging pupils tospend more time on sport, music,drama, outdoor education andnon-examined enrichment. Surely,teaching our pupils about personalfinance, health and nutrition, ethicsand wider global issues is moreimportant than GCSEs 9, 10, 11 andso on? Having said that, I was verydisappointed to hear an admissionstutor from a leading UK universityrecently tell parents at my schoolthat the co-curricular side of life isfar less important to them than itonce was. This narrowing view ofeducation will only serve to increasethe already damaging exam factoryapproach to schooling.Fewer GCSEs will give pupilsmore time to study, exploringeach subject in great depth andallowing for more off-syllabusdiscourse. A criticism of thecurrent regime is that GCSEs arenot necessarily a good indicatorof future A Level success. Well,if pupils could spend more timeon fewer subjects, then maybethe predictive ability of GCSEsmight improve. Fewer GCSEsmight also mean less notorietyfor Exam Boards if fewer papersare sat and fewer fringe markersrequired.Education is about fostering alife-long passion for learning andbuilding critical thinking skills,and there is a danger that funand exploration disappear fromthe experience as pupils take ontoo many subjects. Learningshould be enjoyable and it is ourduty to do the very best to makesure that every pupil fulfils hisor her potential, both in and outof the classroom, examined andnon-examined. Racing throughtoo many courses, exam driventeaching and the banking of belowpar results is not, in my opinion,the way forward.Headmaster and Hereford Cathedral School’s Chinese international students togetherwith five girls from St Catherine’s School, Sydney, visiting students from Phillips ExeterAcademy, USA, and visiting staff from a School in Fledberg, Germany.Independent Schools Magazine 15