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Issue 1

Specialist Language College

LClogoMillthorpe has been a specialist language college since 2000. Initially, the specialist language college status was held jointly with All Saints RC School and the partnership was so successful that after each school achieved its own separate specialist language college status in 2005, many of the joint projects continued (and still continue today).

 

Partnership projects with All Saints

  • Y9 masterclasses in Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, Modern Greek and British Sign Language for students from all York secondary schools.
  • Biennial Languages for Life conference for Y10 - Y13 students from schools and colleges across Yorkshire.
  • Twice weekly twilight (3.30pm - 5.00pm) GCSE Italian lessons.
  • The funding of two Foreign Language Assistants to work in primary schools across the city and the funding of our own two FLAs to work extra hours in secondary schools across the city, preparing GCSE and 'A' level students for their speaking exams.
  • The funding of a Community Resources Manager (Karen Harper) who works in each York secondary school in rotation - one day a week for a half term - and who is responsible for posting our resources and those she produces at other schools onto a York Language Colleges MFL resources blog, so that they can be used by schools across the city.
  • The funding of a Languages PA (June Moore) to work two days a week in Millthorpe and two days a week in All Saints to help organise and administer both joint and separate Language College and International School events, projects, visits and exchanges.

 

Partnership work with other schools in York

Over the past 10 years a major part of our Language College work has been in primary schools, teaching French to KS2 students and helping to trian KS2 teachers to teach French. In September 2010 the number of primary schools we work in will be reduced from seven to four:

Knavesmire, Dringhouses, St Paul's and Poppleton Road.

Our other feeder primary schools are now able to teach French without our support and we are using the released funding to support secondary schools in York that are struggling to deliver foreign languages at KS4 because group sizes are small (and therefore not financially viable). This year we will be fully funding Spanish GCSE at York High and we have supported Burnholme by providing resources and schemes of work to enable them to set up twilight Italian GCSE. In the penultimate week of term we will be running our first pre-'A' Level study visit to Paris for ex-Y11 students who will be continuing French at 'A' level.