Stockport School has been lucky enough to receive Erasmus+ funding from the British Council and the European Union to provide teachers and teaching assistants with the opportunity to develop their knowledge of French, German or Spanish on fully funded courses in Rouen, Santander and Hamburg respectively. This has formed part of two projects called Driving Languages Forward and Driving Languages Further Forward, that have aimed to raise the profile of the MFL department and language learning in general, and develop the school’s international ambitions alongside our work with eTwinning and the International Schools Award.
The following members of staff have already benefited from the courses or will have benefited from them by the end of the 2019-2020 academic year:
France: Mr García Campos (MFL), Ms Hitchmough (Maths), Miss Kelly (TA), Mrs Patkin (Science), Mr Williamson (Pastoral)
Germany: Mrs Johnson (TA), Miss Ormerod (English), Miss Scholes-Higham (Science), Mr Tidy (Maths)
Spain: Mrs Glass (MFL), Miss Kelly (TA), Mrs Robinson (MFL), Miss Roberts (English), Mr Tipler (MFL), Mrs Ward (Maths/TA)
Attending the course has meant that:
- All staff involved have developed their knowledge of a foreign language, contributing to their personal and professional development.
- MFL teachers have kept their knowledge of the languages they are teaching up-to-date;
- MFL teachers have had the opportunity to collect authentic resources and cultural knowledge to use in their teaching;
- Some MFL teachers have improved their knowledge of their second or third language to be able to support pupils in other GCSE classes during MFL Attainment periods;
- Teaching assistants have felt more confident in supporting pupils with Special Educational Needs in MFL classes;
- Teachers, teaching assistants and pastoral staff have been able to share their experiences of learning a new language with pupils to stress the importance of language-learning and the resilience it requires;
- Teachers in non-MFL subjects have been able to include cultural and linguistic references learnt on the courses in their lessons to improve pupils cultural knowledge;
- All participants have supported a variety of international activities to improve pupils’ cultural knowledge.
Stockport School has been awarded further Erasmus+ funding from the European Union for 2020-2022, and will be using it to facilitate further staff training and the international curriculum.