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Disappointing fall in GCSE languages entries. French and German down but Spanish up. |
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Tuesday, 24 August 2010 09:30 |
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Despite last year’s stabilization, there has been a further small decline in languages take up at GCSE this year.
Although nothing like as dramatic as the falls suggested in the press, there has been an overall decline in the number of languages awards in the UK - from 362338 to 348190 (just over 14000, mainly in French and German) The figures for England are almost identical (see table below). As last year there has also been a decline in the total number of subject entries, which are down by nearly 95,000 (1.8%) . This compares with a decrease in languages of 3.9% in both the UK and in England. So, although the decline is not as sharp as the headline figures suggest, there has been a measurable fall in languages entries. It remains to be seen whether this corresponds to any increase in alternative qualifications such as Asset or NVQ.
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A level results show small decline – Spanish up but French, German and Chinese down |
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Thursday, 19 August 2010 10:00 |
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The provisional results for 2010 were published today. The overall figure for languages shows a small decline, but with some significant variations between languages.
In England there were 31685 awards in total (compared to 32547 in 2009 – a difference of 856) Underlying these figures however there is a continuing (but lower) drop in German (- 195) and French (-372) and a further rise in Spanish (+298). Contrary to expectations, however, the numbers achieving a grade in “Other Languages” which have increased steadily in recent years – last year for example they were up by 554 or 7.7% - have fallen sharply (by 7.6%) Particularly striking has been a fall in the numbers taking Chinese, down from 3151 to 2349 (UK figures). The reasons for this turnaround are not yet clear and it remains to be seen whether there is any compensating increase in other qualifications such as Asset languages which are not recorded here.
The picture at AS remains relatively stable with a fall of just over 100 (out of over 40,000). French and German numbers fell while Spanish and in this case also Other Languages grew.
Performance at A level continues to improve overall. In French for example 39.1% of candidates were awarded A* or A (compared with 38.6% gaining A last year when A* was not available. |
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The New Government and Languages |
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Thursday, 13 May 2010 00:00 |
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The new government took office on May 11 and on May 12 the Department for Education was formed, to replace the DCSF. Both Parties in the coalition have stated their support for languages and language learning. However no assumptions about the future should be made as we do not yet know for certain what position languages have in their education priorities, nor the timetable for any future changes to the National Curriculum, All that can be said is that,
- The existing national curriculum remains in place and languages are compulsory in KS3 and an entitlement in KS4
- The KS3 and KS2 frameworks along with other existing guidance are still in place and still available for teachers to use to support classroom teaching.
- The primary entitlement in KS2 remains current Departmental policy
For further guidance please contact us at
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Primary Languages – Longitudinal Study published |
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Wednesday, 10 February 2010 00:00 |
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A three year study carried out by Open University and the University of Southampton and Canterbury Christ Church University was published in February. It provides many insights into the successes of the primary programme to date as well as indicating what still needs to be done, highlighting the particular challenges of progression over 4 years.
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Major Review Of Languages In Higher Education |
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Tuesday, 20 October 2009 09:00 |
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Professor Michael Worton’s review of languages provision in higher education was published yesterday by HEFCE.
In it Profesor Worton argues that there needs to be continued investment in languages from Government, but that Universities themselves must also take action – taking advantage of their autonomy – to secure the place of languages and the contribution that they make to the strategic objectives of universoities and to society more widely.
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