December 2023 Languages Update
Dear colleagues,
Welcome to your December languages update, the last of 2023!
I have plenty to share with you in this month’s update including exciting news about our 2024 GCSEs, new support materials on our website and free training sessions.
I hope the rest of your half term goes well and you have a restful break when it gets here.
Best wishes,
Rebecca Waker
Subject Advisor for Languages
In this month’s update (click on the link to go directly to the relevant section):
We've had some really positive feedback about our interactive vocabulary list for French. The Spanish and German equivalents are now availabe.
We know how important it is to you that you can understand the differences between the vocabulary you are currently teaching and what is included in the new GCSE.
We have created documents which map the AQA (2016) and Pearson Edexcel (2016) vocabulary to our new specification. So far this is available for French.
It's coming up to options evenings, so we have put together this collection of resources that we hope you'll find helpful. The collection includes both videos and printable materials so there should be something you can use both on the night and in class.
We have arranged a range of training for the speaking exams. You can attend our regular speaking exam conduct training or one of my drop in sessions. My sessions will be short, 30 minute sessions with some top tips followed by time for your questions.
We'll also be sharing the updated versions of our Administrative Support Guide and London Centre Orals documents shortly.
GCSE Drop in sessions
GCSE exam conduct training
A Level Drop in sessions
A level exam conduct training
Acting on feedback you have given us during our Getting Ready to Teach events we have arranged a new phonics training session.
In this session we will explore a range of teaching and learning strategies that can be used for both introducing and recycling phonics knowledge in the Modern Languages classroom from KS3. We will explore common challenges of the new Read Aloud and Dictation tasks and help you develop students’ phonic abilities in these areas.
We are offering a new training event in January related to the new GCSE writing paper.
In this event, we will focus on exploring key features of the question paper and mark criteria in the new Pearson Edexcel (2024) Paper 4, Writing, for French, German and Spanish, with a particular focus on:
• comparing the structure of the paper with the existing AQA structure, to support the centres who are switching to our qualification
• understanding application of the best fit mark criteria for writing tasks
• understanding the Pearson Edexcel approach for marking the translations
• considering teaching and learning approaches to best prepare your students for the examination.
Subject advisor
Rebecca Waker
Languages
