Let's Transform MFL

MFL HoD. Advocate for growth & renewal in languages. Views expressed are my own. 🏳️‍🌈 he/il/er/هو

[Let's Transform MFL @MflTransform]

Any thoughts, @HmiWardle ? Lots of #mfltwitterati will want to know whether Ofsted stands by its Research Review, now that it has been so forensically unpicked and refuted by the very research community which the Review purports to represent. #ASCL2022

[Let's Transform MFL @MflTransform]

"The Ofsted MFL Research Review and the associated 2022 GCSE Subject Content represent a narrowly focused prescription for a very limited approach to languages education in England".

Interested to know what @HmiWardle makes of the content of this Special Issue.

[AQA @AQA]

Good news! We’ve been accredited by Ofqual. The new GCSE French specification and sample assessment materials are available on our website ready for first teaching in September 2024.

#GCSEFrench #MFLTwitterati

[OxfordGerman Network @OxfordGermanNet]

We are delighted to announce the launch of the 2023 edition of 'A German Classic'. This year's text is Franz Kafka's Der Heizer. All info here: https://t.co/GUznra2P1n @OxfordGerman @HLaehnemann @MflTransform @ukgconnection @OxMML_Schools @GermanReading1 @MLOE75531215

[Let's Transform MFL @MflTransform]

https://t.co/SrVDtZoYdU

Grsat conference for teachers of Spanish- Sat 24th June in Manchester at @InstCervantes by @ismla_uk #mfltwitterati

[Jon Datta @DattaJon]

Alongside @MMLL_Cambridge, @OxMML_Schools & @TranslationExch, I'm delighted to announce we have launched Think Like a Linguist. It's designed to harness expert knowledge at @Cambridge_Uni & @UniofOxford to change how students think about language learning: https://t.co/GmWWvPk8Q7

[Let's Transform MFL @MflTransform]

So presumably Ofsted & co would criticise Charles's language skills and whomever taught him because he didn't pronounce Familie correctly? Good example of the problem with the obsession with phonics.

[ISMLA @ismla_uk]

Calling all MFL Trainees and ECTs! @ismla_uk and @ALL4language language teaching conference at @wschool on Sat 22nd April. Booking here: https://t.co/N2J903XEcS

Please share and retweet!

#mfltwitterati #mfl #ect #edutwitter

[Let's Transform MFL @MflTransform]

@gianfrancocont9 @RachelHawkes60 @JWood201 @CatMan49223300 @VEverettmfl @ALL4language I haven't seen details of any second contract or funding so don't know

[Let's Transform MFL @MflTransform]

NCELP has gone - but what is it's legacy? For a short time, it permeated all aspects of MFL policy: tunnel-vision Ofsted research review which was largely slated by academics, and a flawed new GCSE which reduces standards & threatens to undermine uptake. DfE needs to press pause.

[Let's Transform MFL @MflTransform]

@gianfrancocont9 @RachelHawkes60 @JWood201 @CatMan49223300 @VEverettmfl @ALL4language Unless DfE decide to delay or pause their new GCSE. Given that we still haven't got final SAMs for French, let alone German or Spanish, and students will soon be in year 9...
...at best it makes a mockery of DfE's mantra about building knowledge over time.

[Let's Transform MFL @MflTransform]

@RachelHawkes60 @gianfrancocont9 @JWood201 @CatMan49223300 @VEverettmfl @ALL4language For example DfE might have to continue to commission NCELP to do various bits associated with the rollout of the new GCSE. Because this isn't DfE's GCSE, it's NCELP's GCSE and DfE doesn't have the capacity and capability in-house to do the specialist work.

[Let's Transform MFL @MflTransform]

@RachelHawkes60 @gianfrancocont9 @JWood201 @CatMan49223300 @VEverettmfl @ALL4language DfE could choose to fund University of York/a consortium to do something else. If it does, it will be interesting to see whether it does so via a competitive tendering process. People will be watching out for this, I suspect.

[Let's Transform MFL @MflTransform]

@gianfrancocont9 @natalie_eloise @CatMan49223300 @JWood201 @VEverettmfl @ALL4language @RachelHawkes60 If the new contract were for the same service as NCELP delivered, then NCELP staff would be entitled to continue their jobs under the new employer. Again, normal procurement practice.

[Let's Transform MFL @MflTransform]

@gianfrancocont9 @natalie_eloise @CatMan49223300 @JWood201 @VEverettmfl @ALL4language @RachelHawkes60 The Languages Hubs contract was the successor contract to NCELP. NCELP had its contract extended to dovetail with the awarding of the new contract. But the new contract has some different deliverables and outcomes. That's why NCELP staff aren't being TUPEd across to UCL.

[Let's Transform MFL @MflTransform]

@RachelHawkes60 @gianfrancocont9 @JWood201 @CatMan49223300 @VEverettmfl @ALL4language Speaking of the weirdly sacrosanct Pedsgogy Review (which was about as thorough as my approach to ironing school shirts), did anyone ever find out what the 25th commonly used verb was?!

[Let's Transform MFL @MflTransform]

@RachelHawkes60 @gianfrancocont9 @JWood201 @CatMan49223300 @VEverettmfl @ALL4language There are ways in which the Pedagogy Review can be interpreted. NCELP itself chose to dial up and dial down various aspects. I suspect the new provider will do the same. Anyone would.

[Let's Transform MFL @MflTransform]

@RachelHawkes60 @gianfrancocont9 @JWood201 @CatMan49223300 @VEverettmfl @ALL4language I also think this contract- £15m over several yrs- will outlive the dogma of the Ofsted research review. Who knows, it might even outlive Ofsted itself. Nothing is ever forever in education, nor in politics.

[Let's Transform MFL @MflTransform]

@gianfrancocont9 @RachelHawkes60 @JWood201 @CatMan49223300 @VEverettmfl @ALL4language There will be discontinuity. NCELP was commissioned on a different contract.. This is a nww contract with a diff service spec, different outcomes & different deliverables. A different provider will want to do things differently. That's how all public sector procurement works.

[Let's Transform MFL @MflTransform]

@gianfrancocont9 @CatMan49223300 @JWood201 @VEverettmfl @ALL4language @RachelHawkes60 DfE commissioning teams may or may not have been feedback but ultimately any commissioning process is commercially sensitive. It's a key distinction between procurement (which is what this was) vs grant-giving.

[Let's Transform MFL @MflTransform]

@gianfrancocont9 @CatMan49223300 @JWood201 @VEverettmfl @ALL4language @RachelHawkes60 It was a public tender and commissioning process like any other. There were weighted criteria and each bid will have received a score. Those criteria will have included cost and quality measures. Only one provider can win the tender.

[Let's Transform MFL @MflTransform]

Make sure you have all filled in the Language Trends survey! #mfltwitterati

[British Council @BritishCouncil]

📣 Heads of #MFL in secondary schools and language co-ordinators in primary in England.

Please complete our LANGUAGE TRENDS ENGLAND 2023 survey :
Primary school: https://t.co/XQLFTehEGa
State Secondary: https://t.co/FQmUptVGVs
Independent School: https://t.co/YOGdf9UwTW

[Let's Transform MFL @MflTransform]

@gianfrancocont9 @CatMan49223300 @JWood201 @VEverettmfl @ALL4language @RachelHawkes60 Indeed. I was struck by the extent to which the Ofsted research review forgot that language learning is a social and cultural process, not just a cognitive one. Pupils aren't blank vessels into which we mechanically inject words, grammar and phonics in some kind of perfect order