Ofsted has a very narrow view of what counts as a broad and balanced curriculum. We need more GCSEs to combat this. How about we start with comparative languages?
I have had the honour of visiting many schools up and down the country in the last few months. One of the common features of these visits is the challenge I’m hearing about facing modern foreign language teachers: how to engage young people in languages? In South-East Cambridgeshire: “The children here aren’t interested in French”. In Gloucestershire: “We had such resistance when we made a language compulsory for the highest attainers, now we’re just sending a strongly-worded letter to suggest they choose it.” In Lincolnshire: “We don’t make all students do two languages now, it was better to let them drop it.”
Continue reading “Call for a New GCSE in Comparative Languages”