Deivis D. Pothin

Later this month I will be organizing St Luke’s CE Primary School‘s second Spanish Week. The first event was quite successful and children had lots of fun but this time I planned it more carefully and decided to share some thoughts that might be helpful when organizing such an event in your school:

1.Know what you want to achieve: Why should your school have a day or week dedicated to modern foreign languages? What do you want to get out of it? Whole-school foreign language events are ideal to raise the profile of MFL across the school; involve children and staff in valuing and promoting foreign languages; celebrate children’s achievement as well as children, parents and staff’s cultural and linguistic diversity.

2. Start small: if you have never organized a whole-school event before, don’t try to do it all at once. Start with, for example, a key stage fun afternoon in the language taught at your school, e.g. games, films, art work, etc. Although you, probably the MFL subject leader, are organizing it, remember that you don’t need to do everything. The key words here are are – collaborate and delegate!

3. Plan in advance: Make sure your MFL event is in the school diary from the beginning of the school year, taking into account other important events that might be going on in the school at the same time, e.g. SATs; other subject events, residential trips, etc. Know your budget and book any outside visitors in advance. Giving teachers and support staff plenty of time, clear guidance and support, filled with enthusiasm and passion for your subject can only be a win-win situation. Don’t forget to plan a staff meeting one week earlier to go through the activities, reinforce any language needed and establish positive expectations with staff.

4. Collect the evidence: While children and staff are having fun with the events planned, it can be very easy to completely forget about recording it. Create a folder in your school’s network or teachers’ drive where they can save photos, videos and work done during the week. Use ICT for a purpose, e.g. use voice digital recorders or microphones to record children singing, speaking, talking in the target language. Take photos. Interview parents, teachers, children, outside visitors. Get the school’s newspaper club involved. Use wordle to create a word cloud with what everyone said about the activities. Do an online survey with the children before and after the events to check the impact of your school’s foreign language week. Use the results to your advantage when writing your subject leader’s report to governors and your headteacher.

5. Share the outcomes of your MFL event: Make a whole-school display. Create a video clip with the best moments and share it on the internet, the school’s website or somewhere more secure like LGFL Video Central Website. Write about it in the school’s newsletter. Publish photos and children’s work on the school’s website or twitter account. Invite the MFL link governor for some of the activities or share the outcomes with them. Make a booklet with photos and examples of children’s work and leave it in the school’s reception area for visitors.

6. Make it fun and cross curricular!! Organize a traditional dance session (we’ll have salsa lessons for all the children, from reception to year 6). Use ICT: make podcasts, film animations, skype a school overseas, design ICT games to reinforce the vocabulary (2DIY is a good option). Explore cultural aspects of countries where your school’s foreign language is spoken. Invite a native speaker (maybe a parent) for an interview. Organize a gastronomic activity with typical dishes. Learn a traditional song or how to play a typical instrument in the music lesson. Get the children to create some artwork based on artists who are native speakers of the language taught at your school. For example, at St Luke’s, each year group focuses on a different Spanish-speaking artist: Miró, Diego Rivera, Rufino Tamayo, Frida Kahlo, Fernando Botero, Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dalí. See below some examples of the powerpoint I created to support the teachers.

If you found any of these tips useful or if you have any other great ideas to make a whole-school MFL event even better, do not hesitate to leave a comment!