THE CURRICULUM - LANGUAGES

Faculty of International Studies

This Faculty incorporates Modern Foreign Languages, E.A.L. and Community Languages.

Shorefields College has a history of offering a choice of Languages and of developing English language skills to recent overseas arrivals. We are a multilingual community both among staff and students. Twenty-six different languages are spoken, with Arabic speakers being the most numerous after English; Somali, Czech/Slovak and Lingala follow in joint third place. A range of languages are represented by one or two speakers, such as Chichua, Xhosa and Farsi.

Modern Languages

All students from Years 7 to 9 are taught a Modern Foreign Language. As from 2003 this has been French and Spanish, offered to pupils in Years 7, 8 and 9. We began September 2006 with a GCSE group taking Spanish in Year 10, and three groups taking French. Twenty-nine pupils will sit GCSE French this summer.

In September 2007 we will be working with the Humanities Department to deliver French and Spanish to Year 9, which is an exciting new project. We hope to offer the opportunity to visit France at some point through the project.

Our new Language Suites are beautifully equipped, with all four rooms offering the opportunity to teach and learn via interactive white boards / projectors.

We continue to help train students from John Moore's University and have two on placement with us per year. We maintain a Foreign Language Assistant, and hope to have both a French and Spanish speaker working with us in October 2007.

A Summary of the Modern Languages Course in Years 7/8 at Shorefields

The Year 7 students learn to introduce themselves and their families and pets. They can say where they live and what they look like. They are able to give their opinion about school subjects, describe their school day and tell the time. They can talk about what they do in their spare time. They have practiced listening, speaking, reading and writing, working between levels 2-4 of the national curriculum. In addition, year 7 pupils have learned the value of citizenship through many aspects of this year's course and, in module 2, they completed tasks on area 1a of the citizenship specification (the E. U., the Commonwealth and the U.N.)

The year 8 students learn to talk, write, read and understand information about their leisure pursuits, their home and environment and holidays. They have also learnt how to talk and ask about someone else's. They have used the present and future time frames. They have used a diversity of IT skills including data, word processing, use of pictures, research on the internet and, in some cases, use of email. They have covered the area B of the citizenship curriculum (with reference to National, Religious and Ethnic identity and the need for mutual respect). They work between Levels 2 - 5 of the National Curriculum.

English as an Additional Language

The EAL department provides language support in two main ways.

As a Taught Subject

• Shorefields is unique in Liverpool offering EAL as a timetabled option in Key Stage 4. This a new course begun in September 2006 and it is hoped that the intensive focus this gives, particularly on reading and writing, will significantly improve the performance of EAL students at GCSE. Also, having an EAL option, allows students to achieve an alternative accreditation in English should the GCSE English not be appropriate.
• In 1995 Shorefields was the first school in Liverpool to design and deliver an induction course for beginner EAL pupils who are new arrivals to the UK and who also may not have received an education in their country of origin.
• In 1996 Shorefields was the first school in Liverpool to offer accredited English language courses to beginner EAL pupils to develop and celebrate their progress in the acquisition of English Language.

In Class Support - department staff liaise with subject teachers to support EAL students across the curriculum, with particular emphasis on English, Maths, Science and Humanities.

The EAL teacher and the Bilingual Teaching Assistants work with targeted staff in partnership as part of their timetables. Classroom level agreements are drawn up and support is given using interpretation, translations and production of bilingual resources by bilingual staff.

In the case of the EAL teacher differentiated materials and strategies are developed.

'Although support is concentrated in Key Stages 3 and 4, some pastoral help is also available for the increasing number of EAL students staying on for Years 12 and 13. The Head of EAL is a sixth form tutor. In September 2007 we are delighted to be able to offer literacy and EAL support for BTEC and A level students.'

Support at lunchtimes and after school available from the EAL department includes:

• All year groups homework support
• Year 9 SATs support
• Year 11 basic Maths skills support
• Community Language GCSE lessons
• First language support / Lunchtime supervision on the school field
• Midday prayers
• Asylum seeker pupils' self help group

Pastoral Support - EAL staff provide support in the first language and in English to resolve pastoral issues and to liaise effectively with families. The department works with the charity the Haven Project who provide a counsellor to monitor and provide for the particular emotional needs of our asylum seeker pupils.

Home / School Liaison - The Heads of EAL and PSCHE co-ordinate a series of meetings with Somali and Arabic speaking parents to provide a forum for the sharing of information and the collaborative resolution of issues such as bullying and canteen food.

Community Languages

We aim to offer our students the opportunity, where at all possible, of gaining a GCSE qualification in their first language. Part time tutors work with the students to prepare for the exams. In recent years students have obtained high grades in Arabic, Chinese, Persian, Polish, Portuguese and Urdu.

Faculty of International Studies

For the last two years we have run a very successful Arabic GCSE course for our Arabic speaking pupils.