|
View features for
|
|
start of content
The KS2 Framework for languages is launched
The centrepiece of the National Languages Strategy - Languages for All Languages for Life - is our commitment to give every child between the ages of 7 and 11 the entitlement to learn a new language. This marks a fundamental shift in our approach to language learning in this country and, by 2010 will transform the shape of language learning in our schools.
Much has already been achieved. We have been working with 19 Pathfinder Local Authorities to learn lessons about sustainable models for primary languages. We have developed new primary teacher training courses with languages and have piloted training courses for teachers and teaching assistants. Specialist Language Colleges, Comenius Centres and Higher Education Institutions are working with local authorities to help build this primary capacity and throughout England plans are now in place for a significant expansion of provision in the coming period.
One outstanding characteristic of all of the work that we have seen so far has been the commitment of local authorities and schools as they take up this challenge. This has been mirrored in the dedication of the teachers involved and, most important of all, the enthusiasm and enjoyment of so many young people.
We are determined to build on and foster this enthusiasm and commitment. In doing so we must also ensure that it develops coherently and successfully, becoming embedded in the primary curriculum of the 21st century and providing a stimulating and well rooted foundation for language learning in secondary schools. That is why we have decided to publish a national Key Stage 2 Framework for Languages, which will be the focus of our long-term support for primary entitlement. The intention is to provide a nationally agreed point of reference, which is flexible enough to take account of the many different starting points on this road to full entitlement, and at the same time visionary enough to show what will be possible.
In Languages for All Languages for Life - we recognised that the achievement of full primary entitlement is both critical to our strategy and a major educational and cultural challenge. As the Framework objectives themselves make clear, this is not only a matter of developing competence in one or more languages, crucial as this is. It is also about the broader curriculum - about understanding language and identity, about developing an international outlook, and about learning. It is about inclusiveness and opportunities for all of our children. It is about the kind of people they will become and the kind of world in which they will live. These are some of the reasons, I believe, why so many of you are enthused by the idea of language learning in the primary school. This is also why the publication of the Key Stage 2 Framework for Languages is so important both for the success of our Primary Strategy and for the future of our children.
Andrew Adonis
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Schools
|
