As we come to the end of our first term, we look to harness this ‘positive time of renewed focus’ as quoted by the British Council’s recently published Languages Trends survey.
https://www.britishcouncil.org/sites/default/files/language_trends_england_2023.pdf
We seem to be on the road to recovery post-pandemic where more schools in England are including primary languages more consistently in their curriculum offer. International engagement is improving and there is a greater continuity between KS2 and KS3 transition which, although it still has some way to go, is definitely a step in the right direction if the government’s EBACC target of 90% of pupils including a foreign language in their choices is to be achieved. We see that in the Welsh curriculum, a development to include an international language strand into their offer is being implemented which will again spotlight the relevance and importance of foreign language learning at primary level. One further exciting development is the more prevalent use of digital resources and interactive apps to support pupils’ learning. For example, Primary Languages Network’s new web-based app ‘Planet Languages’
Allows individual pupils to engage in a listening, reading and writing activity each week, consolidating the words and phrases they have previously learnt throughout the scheme of work. In the same way we have seen other apps increase the potential for pupils to self-study in bitesize chunks of time, language learning apps such as this aim to boost recall with its little and often approach.
