John Bald/language and literacy

Introducing tenses in primary languages or Year 7

The word tense is a barrier to learning. It is a corruption of the old French tens, which means time.  The French simply call tense temps, the modern French word for time, and save a lot of trouble by so doing. So, we talk about time, and do so as soon as we've learned the days of the week. We just say today is... yesterday was... tomorrow will be....  and practise this for a little while until the children have got used to it - I usually find three or four weeks are enough, less if the teacher does it every morning.

So, In Spanish,  Hoy es martes.  Ayer fue lunes. Mañana será miercoles.

In French, Aujourd´hui, c'est lundi.  Hier a été dimanche. Demain sera mardi.

Once the idea is established, it can be built on. Michel Thomas introduced few verbs, but a full range of tenses. This is a simple adaptation of the same idea, with the addtion that we teach the children to write these short sentences, using the techniques below, as well as saying them.

Three comments on Mossbourne

The article on Mossbourne Community Academy in the Sunday Times has so far produced these three comments, which are central to the debate on the future of state education. I have put them in the order in which they were posted.

The question of does this school choose it's own students has not been answered. It may take children from poor families but as we all know that doesn't mean that they aren't bright and  get total support from parents. Whilst I congratulate this school even the most biased educationalist would have to admit that only if "all state schools" could choose their intake could they do as well. sadly some schools in the district will have to cope with the students this school rejects and in such a poor area the loss of bright students from motivated families will be a serious handicap that any educationalist such as Wilshaw should accept.

Peter Burgess, Bradford

 Peter Burgess' comment gets to the heart of the issue of poverty and educational achievement. It is not poverty that is the problem, but the negative attitudes to education of a minority of parents. The Left sees these attitudes as a consequence of poverty, and the previous government's "inclusion" policy allowed them to wreck education in a very large number of schools. It is probably closer to the truth to say that they are one of its causes, and should not be tolerated inside the school gates.

 

John Bald, Linton

 

Congratulations to Mossbourne, what a step in the right direction for Hackney. I have seen the pupils on their way to school and they look very smart and inspiring. As reported, the staff are monitored closely. I wish all teachers and head teachers were not only monitored closely but pushed out the door when they were found to be wanting. Almost everyone has a story from their schooldays about a useless teacher. Why are they not rooted out. At my local primary the problem is the useless headmaster. The whole town knows he is not up to the job but he will probably be there for the next twenty years.

Mossbourne Spectacular

The offer of 10 Cambridge places for Mossbourne pupils, putting the school on a par with expensive private schools such as Fettes, is reported in The Sunday Times, here. I'm quoted as saying that this is a spectacular breakthrough for Hackney children, which of course it is. Hackney children want to work hard and succeed, and their parents want the same. This shows that they can do so.

There are 125 pupils in Mossbourne's Upper Sixth. This is a spectacular success too, suggesting that Mossbourne has solved the long standing problem of establishing successful sixth forms in comprehensive schools. 

Mossbourne must be a model for state secondary education. Its latest Ofsted report is here.

The same article quoted Yougov surveys that showed a high level of approval for the government's changes to the national curriculum. Michael Gove is entitled to a quiet smile.

How does Mossbourne do it?

Mossbourne Community Academy in Hackney is the most successful comprehensive school in the country. The proportion of pupils gaining over five GCSEs including English and maths is over 80%, from a genuinely comprehensive intake - I know this, not only from visits to the school, but from working with a lot of its pupils in Hackney primary schools.

The basis of the school's success is in this video for teachers' tv. It is under fifteen minutes long, and should be viewed by every teacher in the country. Sir Michael Willshaw sums it up in five points:

1. A structured environment, in contrast to the environment of many Hackney children outside school. A mantra used frequently begins "I aspire to maintain an enquiring mind..."   The school previously on the site, Hackney Downs, allowed the poor local environment to dominate the school. It was, no doubt, a reflection of local culture, but was an educational disaster. To see both sides of the question, read Hackney Downs, the School that Dared to Fight, by Maureen O'Connor, Elizabeth Hales, Jeff Davies and Sally Tomlinson,- and the relevant inspectors' reports. Hackney Downs closed in 1995, and the first GCSE results from Mossbourne appeared in 2010 - and indication of the timescale of educational change, even under optimal conditions.

2. Insistence on good behaviour. Poor behaviour is not tolerated and uniform is strict, with a stripe down the outside of the blazer that is reminiscent of the public school.  Detentions are immediate and quite severe. Every member of staff is expected to contribute to this at all times. There is a staffroom in each area of the school, so that the children are not out of view of staff during breaks.  Detentions begin with losing breaks, lunchtimes, six o'clock detentions, and Saturday mornings. Permanent exclusions are rare.

3. Devolved management to 7 heads of learning areas. Heads of these areas are responsible for outcomes, resources, quality of learning. Large institutions, says Sir Michael, need to be broken down into "small, manageable units". Year 7 is a separate learning area, with additional English and maths for lower achieving children.

4. Quality Teaching and Learning. Teachers work long hours and have passion. Assessment is very systematic, and there are extension classes. School starts at 8.30 for KS3, with two extension classes per week. KS4 starts an hour later, and extension classes finish at 5.10. Teachers have a "no hours" contract. There are additional classes on Saturday morning.

5. Consistent assessment and marking, using levels and sub levels to track progress and set targets. This was also the key to success in the highest-achieving English department I saw in my time as an inspector, in Harvey Grammar School, Folkestone, in 1994.

Very first steps in writing in new languages

1. We need a clear view of the key features in the new language that are different from English. I explain these at the very start of the first lesson. I say something like When we learn a new language, we are not just learning new words, but how different people say things, and give examples such as bonjour as good day rather than hello. I also tell children to say no in English and feel their tongue against the top of their mouth at the front (I’d say palate if they knew palate).  Then drop their tongue to say the n in bonjour. I tend to be as specific about that as about everything else, and, once it’s clear, to practise.

2. The most important point in French is that spoken language flows, written language must be precise. The two main ways the French do this are:

Not pronouncing consonants at the ends of words   chat, vert, grand, loup.  Note that this is what usually happens, not what always happens (eg sept, huit). The French sometimes add letters to the ends of words, usually e and s, to obtain precision.

Avoiding a vowel clash (glottal stop) by deleting a vowel, usually from the end of the first word:

Je ai   Ø   J’ai                                    la ėcole Ø  l’ėcole                            Je me appelle Ø  Je m’appelle

I see the main features in Spanish as its general regularity  –  writing down exactly what we hear will take us 90% of the way there.  The only snag is that  j, z, c   do not produce same sounds as in English.  When we have a double letter in Spanish, ll rr,  or ñ, we can hear it.

3. I explain, demonstrate and practise these features in early lessons, beginning with colours, numbers, days etc. As meaning here is very easy,  children can give all of their attention to the new features – eg   j in rojo, z in azul, ll in amarillo.

4. To write, pick any word you like – preferably not a long one, but one that shows a difference from English – and write it on a board of some sort. Explain it, and have the children study it.  Can they see exactly how to get it right?  The children then look away from board, write with finger on sleeve. Who got it nearly right? Praise. Who got it dead right?  Equal praise. Most will have it dead right, but another try is ok if not. Use this finger writing quite frequently so that children get used to observing closely, paying attention to detail, and getting things right. Children usually enjoy this. Praise for near misses is important, as it encourages attention to detail and second tries.

4.  Gradually move to simple phrases and sentences, using the same modelling technique. Encourage all to try by praising near misses while giving the opportunity for second tries.  As children become used to it, they can begin to write on whiteboards or scrap paper. They should only write in notebooks once they are confident that they can do so. 

4. We fill out basic sentences with things children want to say – for example, they can write about their pets, their own family, things they like and don’t like. We provide the vocabulary they need for this and they practise as above.

5. We do not copy. Copying involves jerking the eyes back and forth from the original version to the child’s own copy. This jerking interferes with the development of understanding, as the focus of attention is constantly switching. The system presented here has the child hold the whole item in his or her mind, so that they develop an understanding of how words are put together.

6. Clicker (Cricksoft) is an excellent vehicle for sentence building.  If it is not available, sentences can also be built from words on cards. Children should have writing partners to check each other’s work – it is better for them to improve their own work than for us to correct it.

7. I am happy to help in any way and welcome correspondence. Email:  [email protected],   weblog www.johnbald.typepad.com/language

Languagenut - a frivolous name for a serious and valuable product

Languagenut, here, is one of several sites offering computer based support to primary linguists, and for my money it is the best. It offers wide coverage of the Primary Framework topics, with lively graphics, animations, songs, games and excellent stories in French, German, Italian, Spanish, Japanese,Chinese and English.  A year's site licence for an individual school at £80 is a bargain - for example, a school running a club for a second foreign language would find lots of material to help them, and to allow higher attaining children to take this language as far as they wanted. Worth exploring for secondary schools too, either for lower attaining children in Year 7, or for those who are switching from the language they've learned in primary school. LA advisors might consider signing up the schools in the authority, with discounts of up to 75% in the first year. I did.

Don't cut libraries. Cut executive salaries and nonsense instead

The politically correct fat cats who control local government get away with it because local councillors don't know enough detail to deal with them.

There need and should be no cuts in libraries at all. Libraries are the intellectual lifeblood of the nation, and the poor child's bookshop. But allowing officials to present alternative packages of cuts, as happens all over the country, lets them  protect the balance of activities that they have built up over the years. Cuts should be made in wasteful, politically correct nonsense, which means most of the activities promoted by the last government. But we do not have councillors who are brave enough and well informed enough to do it. In fact, I don't think we have any at all.

State v public sectors and the universities - shaft of truth from Guardian

Letters

Hard thinking needed to widen university access

Rather than university intake necessarily having to reflect society as suggested by Simon Hughes (Universities must cut private school intake, 8 January), the universities' mission is to take the best from society and help them develop them into critically thinking, challenging and competent members of that society for the greater good of all.

If, at present, the calibre of applicants from the private school sector exceeds that of state school children, this surely reflects not that universities are recruiting according to class-based criteria but that the state education system is failing to produce the numbers of equally high-calibre candidates capable of intellectual pursuit at university level. Hughes is promoting social engineering designed to control and fetter the university system.

As a professor of social work, whose work and discipline concerns the eradication of disadvantage and marginalisation, I can only think that Hughes's view obfuscates the real location of the problem: a lack of social and educational support earlier in life, which has grave implications for our future cultural, intellectual and economic life as a nation. It is time to move away from uncritical political correctness, which is what his position promotes, to an analytic stance which values hard thinking, analysis and challenge, and develops policy accordingly.

Professor Jonathan Parker

Bournemouth

Carol Hill wins case

Carol Hill, the mid-day supervisor sacked for telling a parent that her daughter had been tied up with a skipping rope, has won her case for unfair dismissal. Three cheers, though the initial decision, and the ignorant, authoritarian approach to management and governance behind it, show that little has changed in Essex since I worked there in the eighties.

But why does everyone who tells the truth have to be sacked? What's so terrifying about the truth? Or does the ignocracy still really think we should believe that the world is as they say it is? A final point is that the headteacher, Deborah Crabb, tried to argue to the tribunal that Ms Hill had "brought the school into disrepute".  There would have been no disrepute if the school had handled the whole affair sensitively in the first place.  Great Tey is, incidentally a Church of England school, just like the one that dismissed Katharine Birbalsingh. As Blair once mused, "I wonder what Jesus would have made of it?"

PS. "A spokesman for Great Tey School and Essex County Council admitted the dismissal procedures had been flawed but said the tribunal had found against Mrs Hill in some areas, including that she was ‘not acting in good faith when speaking to the press’.

He added: ‘The claimant’s predominant motive was self-interest and to a lesser extent antagonism towards Mrs Crabb. The tribunal also ruled that disclosures were not protected under the Employment Rights Act, therefore she was not acting as a whistleblower.

‘The council and school will now be considering all the options before making any further decisions or announcements.’"

They should have thought before making this one.