For those of us who reach for Google Translate when poring over menus in restaurants abroad (and sometimes in the UK!), being confident in a second language is an enviable and slightly mysterious skill.  The statutory entitlement for all Key Stage 2 pupils to access modern foreign language (MFL) teaching was implemented in England ten years ago this September. This curriculum change gave an opportunity for children to benefit from the many cognitive and social benefits of holding a second (and for many of our pupils a third or fourth) language from a younger age for the first time. Sadly, this change has not translated with increasing numbers of pupils taking up a language at GCSE. The Ofsted review of MFL published seven years later presented a number of challenges to the success of MFL in both Primary and Secondary schools, starting with a lack of staff expertise and focussing on curriculum planning, ensuring time allocation and successful transition from KS2 to KS3 with a perception of languages as hard to learn. The Government responses to the House of Lords recommendations on education for 11-16 year olds published last week set out a continued ambition for young people to benefit from learning a language to a degree of academic confidence with changes to the GCSE exam specification and  the launch of language hubs. However, there is clearly still much to be done both structurally and culturally to ensure that pupils see learning a language as both accessible and useful. Generating that enthusiasm starts at Primary and needs to be continued through KS3. Not easy when there are so many pressures on the curriculum but there are some useful resources around to at the very least support the transition, including a toolkit that helpfully sets out key knowledge and skills. Giving young people quality opportunities to feel success in language learning as early as possible is surely something worth investing in.

It was great to see so many of you at our conference last week, our next Headteacher meetings are rapidly approaching on March 7 (Primary), March 20 (Secondary) and March 14 (Special Schools). I hope you can join us.

Enjoy the weekend!

Stephen Hall

Chief Executive Officer, Camden Learning