Hola

The Daily Mail reports on a primary school where children are learning 41 languages. Pupils at Newbury Park Primary are a little more ambitious than most. Children there learn key phrases in more than 40 languages - all spoken fluently by one or more pupils at the school. By the time they leave for secondary school, they boast far more than a mere smattering of French or Cantonese. They can say something in everything from Afrikaans to Hebrew, Japanese to Norwegian.

Teachers say Newbury Park's "language of the month" programme has also helped tackle the sense of alienation felt by newcomers to the school in Redbridge, East London. In little more than a decade, the proportion of pupils at the school who do not speak English at home has doubled to 80 per cent. The biggest ethnic group are Tamils who have fled the civil war in Sri Lanka.

"You have 250 Tamil children in the school. It is just polite to greet them in their own language and recognise their culture," said teacher Joe Debono, who runs the language scheme. "And it is a way of celebrating the ethnic diversity of the school and not seeing it as a problem."

Languages covered under the programme - and spoken by at least one pupil - include Spanish, Swahili and dialects originating in India and Africa. Some of the pupils already speak more than one language. Many came to Britain via other European countries including Norway, France and Germany, adding to the diversity of the "language of the month" list.

The school is even considering adding Latin to the list since it is thought by many experts to help children master any language.

Under the scheme, a child is selected every month to present lessons in their native tongue. Seven-year-old Aneeka Bhatturai, whose family is from Nepal, is the current "language teacher". Mr Debono researches the language with the pupil's parents and films the child speaking it. This can then be used in every class in the 850-pupil school, which accepts children aged from four to 11.

Classes start by greeting each other in that month's chosen language. With help from pupils, Mr Debono also draws up a list of a dozen or so useful phrases. "It's the sort of language that would be useful if you were holidaying in the place," he said. "It gives the children a lot of self-esteem and they are quite proud they've done it."

The classes are in addition to languages studied as part of the national curriculum.

Lost in translation

A lack of communication between primaries and secondaries is threatening to undermine young children's learning of languages. Figures obtained by the TES suggest most primary schools are giving secondaries too little information about pupils' progress in learning a foreign language. As a result, secondary teachers do not know what level, if any, the pupils have reached, or even what language they have been learning.

The National Foundation for Educational Research is monitoring the introduction of languages in primaries. Their recently released report suggests that 70% of primaries are offering languages. However, just 17% send information on the children's progress to secondaries. It also said that there was no difference between children who had learnt French from 8 and those who started at 11, partly because many secondaries had treated all pupils as if they knew nothing.

I think there's a lot of work to do if languges are going to be taught properly in schools. For a start, primaries should teach the same languages as they do in their feeder high schools.

£340 extra to help teach foreign languages

I'm sure we're all grateful... But come on!!

Primary schools will receive just £340 each extra to help them teach foreign languages next year. Ministers have pledged £35million, £5million more than this year, as schools prepare for 2010 when languages will become compulsory from the age of seven.

But Mick Brookes, of the National Association of Head Teachers, said the capacity of schools to develop languages was "dependent on funding". He added: "There may well not be enough."

Do you reckon?

Complusory langauges at seven

Proposals by Lord Dearing suggest that foreign languages should be taught at age seven. He also suggests that languages should be a compulsory subject alongside Maths and English.

Isn't it incredible that the Government are talking like they have only just discovered foreign languages! It's about time that we all woke up to the fact that the majority of us are ignorant when it comes to foreign languages!

Whilst it is many years overdue, this is a fantastic suggestion by the Government and I support it fully. I think schools should be allowed to choose which language to teach, and it should be a compulsory subject.