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Teacher Helen Todd speaks about this commendation:
We have linked with a school in Avignon, France and our current year 6 children have conferenced with them for the past year. Each week, or two week cycle the teachers plan something together via e-mail and conference and then teach it in French to the children in England, and in English to the children in France. We then link up and the children carry out their activities together. Activities include introducing ourselves, discussing the weather and a weather quiz, discussing what we like and dislike, singing to one another and basic conversational vocabulary.
To begin with we speak in one language and then we swap to the other. The children have benefited greatly from this and all children are much more confident at speaking in their second language. It has also helped the children to gain a better global understanding and see the importance of learning a second language.
Some of our children visited France last year and they were able to put their language skills to good use!
We have had to overcome several barriers including, budget cuts which meant that here at Redby we no longer had a French assistant and therefore language was sometimes a barrier, staff illness in France and therefore having to work around this to ensure the conferences still took place.
In the future we hope to link with further year groups. To help ensure our staff gain confidence with teaching and therefore speaking an additional language, many members of staff are taking part in LA French training.
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