Pupils withdrawn from German GCSE class

9:10am Tuesday 16th October 2012 in News Photograph of the Author By Mike Laycock, Chief reporter

PUPILS have been withdrawn from a German GCSE class after more than a year of studies at a York school, so they can be given extra lessons in English and maths.

Millthorpe School head teacher Trevor Burton says the move – affecting pupils in one of the school’s four Year 11 German classes – follows changes to grade boundaries in GCSE English Language last year.

He said in a letter to parents that while achievement in all subjects was important, securing a grade C or above in English and Maths was “vital”.

He said: “We are determined to ensure students on the borderline of a grade C go into their English language examination with every advantage.”

He said that next month, pupils would also be completing a maths examination unit and the school was keen to provide additional classroom time to support them in this subject.

But one mother claimed the change had left her child and some other pupils in tears after having studied German since April 2011.

She said: “All that effort has now been wasted.”

She told The Press her own child was already expected to get a grade A or B in English, and she asked why pupils could not have been withdrawn from another subject, such as PE, where months of effort would not have been wasted. But Mr Burton said the school was being flexible and any pupils who wanted to carry on studying German would be able to switch to a different class.

He said this possibility was explained to any parents who took up an invitation to contact the school if they had any concerns, but only one parent had so far done so.

He said the change had been explained directly to pupils at school, many of whom were struggling with German and had seemed relieved they would be given extra tuition over the next six months as the vital English and Maths exams loomed.

He added a similar move was also being considered with pupils in one of the school’s French classes.

Comments(18)

Guy Fawkes says...
10:53am Tue 16 Oct 12

I went to a state comprehensive high school in south London from 1986-90, and passed GCSEs in English language, English literature, mathematics, French, German and Latin (plus six other subjects) - with A grades in all of them. I then went on to get 4 As in A-levels at a state sixth-form college.

If the state system was capable of educating me to this standard, and furthermore in dark days of the Tory regime (and furthermore, incidentally, at the same high school that John Major went to), as the left would have it, why is it now, in the immediate aftermath of 13 years of Blair/Brown largesse, incapable of educating teenagers to the point even where they feel comfortable attempting English, maths and even one modern foreign language?!

I suspect that it isn't a problem with the school, but with the system as a whole, the rot having started at primary level. As a university lecturer I now have to deal with students who lack basic competences aged 18, without which I would have failed my GCSEs 22 years ago.

Learning a second language relatively early in life is vitally important: studies show that kids who grow up in a multilingual household (i.e. who are dealing with two languages virtually from the point of being a baby) have so much less trouble learning a third, fourth or fifth. One of the reasons why there are about 25 citizens of other EU countries living and working in the UK for every one Briton in another European country is that we gave up teaching languages at primary school level a generation ago, and are now dealing with the consequences of this at secondary and even higher education level (university modern languages departments are struggling to recruit all over the place, and are likely to become the first victims of £9k fees).

Stopping this rot is going to take a long time, but our society and economy will be in serious trouble if we don't try.

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YSTClinguist says...
11:49am Tue 16 Oct 12

What a turnaround of events since last year when the Press reported that the Ofsted inspection for this school was, "improved", in part due to it being awarded, "specialist language college status" and "had developed greater choice in the curriculum" since the 2007 inspection.

http://www.yorkpress
.co.uk/education/new
s/8884403.Improved_O
fsted_report_for_Mil
lthorpe_School_in_Yo
rk/

As always, it's the pupils welfare that must be considered. If the major consideration is point scoring where the crucial 5x GCSE's (inc. Maths and English) are considered then we face problems for the future in the World Market if we drop L2 languages at the first sign of politically orientated trouble.

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osbaldwicklane says...
11:54am Tue 16 Oct 12

Stopping this rot is going to take a long time, but our society and economy will be in serious trouble if we don't try.”

Spot on , Guy Fawkes , students are turning up at university and cant do basic maths .

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YSTClinguist says...
12:00pm Tue 16 Oct 12

osbaldwicklane wrote:
Stopping this rot is going to take a long time, but our society and economy will be in serious trouble if we don't try.”

Spot on , Guy Fawkes , students are turning up at university and cant do basic maths .
I've heard rumours from jobcentre staff that jobseekers are leaving university and are unable to spell.

Again, if the system focuses so greatly on obtaining 5x GCSE's including Maths and English and evidence of competency is not being seen at HE level in a significant minority then rot it is.

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sensible_cynic. says...
12:06pm Tue 16 Oct 12

I would suspect that the action has nothing to do with thirteen years of Blair/Brown largesse as Guy Fawkes suggests and is a more likely to be a ploy by the school to improve their rankings in Gove's E Bacc. In order to be awarded the E Bacc, a student must get grade C or above in English and Maths, they need only get a C or above in one MFL. I would imagine the students that have been removed from German lessons are already doing French and that German was perhaps there second language GCSE, therefore not needed as far as league table pressures are concerned.

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sensible_cynic. says...
12:08pm Tue 16 Oct 12

Apologies, should have said 'their second language GCSE'.

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Guy Fawkes says...
1:33pm Tue 16 Oct 12

I would suspect that the action has nothing to do with thirteen years of Blair/Brown largesse as Guy Fawkes suggests and is a more likely to be a ploy by the school to improve their rankings in Gove's E Bacc.


If so, that's a symptom, not the cause. Two decades ago, EVERY comprehensive school pupil took at least one language GCSE (or at least, they did at the school I went to), plus both English exams (unless you did a second foreign language, in which case Eng lit was optional), maths, at least one science, history or geography, computing science or woodwork (or whatever the GCSE was actually called - can't remember) plus art or music, and most of the kids I was at school with got A to C in all of them. But yet the way people talk now, you'd think that achieving this was only for the most gifted, and even that's after the exams have been dumbed down.

That having been said, if the EBacc doesn't include a modern foreign language requirement, I agree with you totally that this is bad news. I can only assume that the government realises that introducing one now would be pointless and unachievable - even if we start at the upper end of the primary school curriculum now, it'll be at least 5-7 years before kids are going in to high school with a realistic chance of doing well at them.

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YSTClinguist says...
1:41pm Tue 16 Oct 12

Is is 'their second language GCSE', 'their third language GCSE', 'their second, second language GCSE' or their 'second L2 language GCSE'? Going to spend the rest of the afternoon with that running through my head now.

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Stan2Attention says...
2:24pm Tue 16 Oct 12

Guy Fawkes - I suspect you were in the top set at school. This move affects pupils in only one of the school’s four Year 11 German classes - and I'm prepared to bet it's not the top set.

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Stan2Attention says...
2:44pm Tue 16 Oct 12

Guy - you say most of the kids you were at school with got A to C in all GCSEs. It must have been an unusual school, because very few have ever had such a high A-C pass rate. If you look at GCSE results in England in 2002, for example, 315,000 sat GCSE French that year, of whom 52.5% achieved grades A-C. In the same year, 122,000 students took German, of whom 57.4% got grades A-C.

Incidentally, the English Baccalaureate is deemed to have been achieved by any student who achieves A* to C GCSE passes in English, maths, science, a foreign language and either history or geography.

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Even AndyD says...
7:16pm Tue 16 Oct 12

Levels of literacy are almost exactly the same now as they were in 1960. They have not got worse, but given the amount of government initiatives thrown at the education industry over the last few decades, it is a reflection on what a waste of time most have been.

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Ayemgee says...
7:50pm Tue 16 Oct 12

My school taught Latin and a foreign language ( French, German.or Spanish) I took Latin and Spanish, a long time ago, and have hardly ever used them since, except for crosswords! These languages were taught with a view to producing scholars and that in my opinion is not what we need today.. Fluent French. Geman and Spanish and Portuese speaking business executives are what is needed in the modern world to sell our products abroad. It is a well known axiom that the French and others sell in English but buy in their native tongue. If we are to compete we need more than exam passes in these languages. We need to be fit to trade and like our footballers we have much to learn about selling in non native tongues.

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Alpha wolf says...
10:12pm Tue 16 Oct 12

Since Millthorpe School is a Specialist Language College I question the legality of the actions taken by the school in cancelling the German classes. Page 25 of the Specialist School's Guidence istates it is a requirement that:
"Language Colleges will focus on Modern Foreign Languages as their main specialist subjects. Schools opting for this specialism must be committed to promoting languages in Key Stage 4 and ensuring that all students follow a language course at this key stage. For the majority this should be a GCSE course but some students’ needs may be better met by courses leading to other approved qualifications "
Given that the school receives additional funding for its specialist status surely the fact that the school has cancelled one language class and as stated in the article is considering cancelling another mean it is breach of this requirement and thus bring its fitness to maintain specialist status into question?

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YSTClinguist says...
11:16pm Tue 16 Oct 12

Ayemgee wrote:
My school taught Latin and a foreign language ( French, German.or Spanish) I took Latin and Spanish, a long time ago, and have hardly ever used them since, except for crosswords! These languages were taught with a view to producing scholars and that in my opinion is not what we need today.. Fluent French. Geman and Spanish and Portuese speaking business executives are what is needed in the modern world to sell our products abroad. It is a well known axiom that the French and others sell in English but buy in their native tongue. If we are to compete we need more than exam passes in these languages. We need to be fit to trade and like our footballers we have much to learn about selling in non native tongues.
L2 languages also have an effect on the brain improving performance in certain other academic subjects. It's why curriculum based L2 learning is needed in primary school. Gone are the days when you presented your dissertation in Latin.

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Alpha wolf says...
1:47pm Wed 17 Oct 12

sensible_cynic. wrote:
I would suspect that the action has nothing to do with thirteen years of Blair/Brown largesse as Guy Fawkes suggests and is a more likely to be a ploy by the school to improve their rankings in Gove's E Bacc. In order to be awarded the E Bacc, a student must get grade C or above in English and Maths, they need only get a C or above in one MFL. I would imagine the students that have been removed from German lessons are already doing French and that German was perhaps there second language GCSE, therefore not needed as far as league table pressures are concerned.
If only that were the case - unfortunately for most this was the only MFL being studied.

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proud-to-be-a-linguist says...
2:16pm Wed 17 Oct 12

Yet another example of the devaluation of modern languages in schools. I am particularly saddened by this as a former pupil of Nunthorpe Grammar School - one of the founding schools of the current Millthorpe. The German and French I learnt there have provided me with many things: immense pleasure at communicating with others in their own language; a greater understanding and tolerance of other cultures; and a career in teaching and writing materials to inspire and educate the linguists of tomorrow. As a country we never seem to learn that speaking other languages really is important to our economic well-being. Oh yes, and it is fun too! If you want to know how useful learning German is, go (for example) to http://www.goethe.de
/ins/gb/lon/enindex.
htm?wt_sc=london And if you are affected by Millthorpe's or any other school's actions, fight it all the way! Languages are not just for the privileged few, not just for grammar school pupils, they are for everybody. Enjoy them and reap the benefits!

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Stan2Attention says...
2:48pm Wed 17 Oct 12

People who speak languages well are often real enthusiasts - I understand that. I agree, too, that the real key to future success is to teach languages in primary schools. But here and now, very many teenagers find languages hard and - sadly - don't see them as important to their future lives. As a result, the take-up of foreign language GCSEs is weak, even in schools like Millthorpe that have languages as a specialism. Last year, 53% of Millthorpe's Year 11 students took language GCSEs, compared with a national average for state schools of 38.5%.

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Stan2Attention says...
4:56pm Wed 17 Oct 12

Alpha wolf wrote:
Since Millthorpe School is a Specialist Language College I question the legality of the actions taken by the school in cancelling the German classes. Page 25 of the Specialist School's Guidence istates it is a requirement that:
"Language Colleges will focus on Modern Foreign Languages as their main specialist subjects. Schools opting for this specialism must be committed to promoting languages in Key Stage 4 and ensuring that all students follow a language course at this key stage. For the majority this should be a GCSE course but some students’ needs may be better met by courses leading to other approved qualifications "
Given that the school receives additional funding for its specialist status surely the fact that the school has cancelled one language class and as stated in the article is considering cancelling another mean it is breach of this requirement and thus bring its fitness to maintain specialist status into question?
All the rules changed in 2011: schools no longer have to abide by any of the previous rules, nor to apply for (or renew) specialist status. The funding which used to go to specialist schools has been moved into the main school budget and is no longer ring-fenced - in other words, it can be spent in any way schools choose. The announcement is here: http://www.education
.gov.uk/inthenews/in
thenews/a0065472/mic
hael-gove-announces-
changes-to-the-speci
alist-schools-progra
mme

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