"The Nice Man" is how my pupils referred to me in the videos I made for remote learning in the 2020-2021 pandemic. It is also a reminder to me to use the blog to celebrate other people, and to not treat everything like an intellectual argument.
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In a previous post, I offered a vision of what a functioning languages ecosystem in the English state sector could look like. With a positive experience of languages in Primary and Secondary School, and with mainstream pathways post-16 and beyond. A contrast with the stark reality of the current situation, where you could hardly design a worse system for teaching and learning languages. The…
Actually, that title is unfair. In science an experiment is never a failure. If you discover something doesn't work, then you have learned something. Unless you fail to learn, in which case, yes, it's a failed experiment. There are three main reasons why it failed. One because of teaching. Two, because of learning. And thirdly because of politics. In terms of teaching, it seems like a great idea…
Here's a scary thought. Is MFL teaching in exactly the sort of place where AI could take over and do the job instead of us? Firstly there's the nature of language learning. One view has it that language learning consists of meeting words and vocabulary in different contexts in a meticulously constructed and tracked series of encounters with words being met and recalled at intervals. AI can…
The worst thing AI has done for me is this: I was testing its problem solving skills by asking it how to cut a cheesecake into 5 equal pieces. It has given me many absurd answers even including cutting the cheesecake horizontally and then reassembling portions of crust and cream. As everyone knows, the correct answer is to cut it into 6 and make the extra slice disappear before serving the 5…
Sorting out unfair grading at GCSE, with its immediate impact on pupil motivation to take a language, incentivisation for schools, and on the narrative of national "failure" is the easiest part of the failed system to put right. The tricky ones are What to do about Transition from KS2 to KS3 and How to Offer Mainstream Language Learning Post-16. And writing about KS2 is tricky for me. Because…
In an earlier post , I looked at how the system could hardly be worse for encouraging people to continue learning languages: Disjointed Transition at age 11, Unfair Grading at GCSE, and lack of mainstream language learning post-16. Within each of these stages, teachers and learners do a good job. But the system is designed to stymie them at every turn. It is not a failure of teaching. Good…
In a previous post , I looked at how we appear to have a system designed to stop people learning languages in school. So we need to challenge the system. Here's the first challenge: Does the system exist simply to be a pipeline to produce language teachers to maintain the system? Do we have to base our decisions around the school curriculum and the languages curriculum so that 2 pupils per…
If you wanted to design a system for making sure as few people as possible learn a language, our school system is perfect: "Transition" from KS2 to KS3 where pupils either start all over again in the language they have been studying, or abandon it and start another language. Cowardly tinkering with performance measures supposedly to support take up at KS4, while the biggest headline performance…
Year 9 Survey April 2026 We have surveyed our Year 9 pupils after they picked their GCSE options, to see if we can find useful information on what shaped their choices and their attitudes to French. We are a school which did not go down the road of compulsory languages at KS4 for any pupils. Or even any guided pathways for certain groups of pupils. So with the removal of the ebacc, our experiences…
The situation we find ourselves in with regard to Tier decisions for the new GCSE is unconscionable. Deciding whether to enter a pupil for Higher or Foundation Tier will have an effect on their grade. A pupil capable of getting a grade 6 will be limited to a grade 5 if entered for Foundation. A pupil who falls short on Higher is in real danger of getting a U. In a normal year, this is a tricky…
