The last three weeks have been very busy. College People Week was really interesting with some really good speakers. The numbers for Modern Languages were disappointing but this reflects small departments with lots of part-time staff who are not supported to attend events. The ESOL numbers in contrast were really good and it was great to have the opportunity to meet people and introduce the Subject Network.
The following week I attended the second meeting of the ESOL Curriculum Working Party. We had a very useful discussion and exchange of ideas looking at different areas of the Curriculum. We have now established a basis for future development and intend to send our initial ideas out to practitioners for consultation. We would like to consult throughout the process.
On the 12th June I visited Edinburgh's Telford College. I had been invited to give advice on appropriate units to offer on a range of courses and for a range of students including evening programmes. We discussed new HN Units, free standing vocational units and National Qualifications. I took the opportunity to demonstrate Practitioners Plus. We also discussed proposed PDAs in Modern Languages and I asked the staff to complete the SQA questionnaire on PDAs which is important for the validation process.
I was supposed to meet Anne Pia, the HMIE for ESOL on the 13th June but due to other commitments Anne postponed the meeting until August.
On the 20th June I attended the Modern Languages Network Annual Conference at Stirling University. There were around 20 delegates including colleagues who also teach ESOL (one was talking about the really good software she had seen domonstrated at College People Week - Crazy Talk!) I had a slot to demonstrate Practitioners Plus and to talk about the SCHOLAR pilot. There was a good deal of interest in both. It was a really good event. We also discussed a response to the Funding Council Report on Modern Languages - I have agreed to send this on behalf of the Network. I was also asked to contact Alex Salmond to ask him to meet representatives of the network to discuss the position of Modern Languages in Scotland. I will do my best on that one. Alex was in the year below me in school and still lives in our home town so if all else fails I can maybe sneak up on him in the butcher's or his other favourite place!
There are lots of interesting things happening with the Scottish Baccalaureate in Languages and ESOL, the new proposals for NQs, additional funding for ESOL, the ESOL Curriculum, the Funding Council Report on Modern Languages etc.
In among all of this I have just finished marking 160+ Higher German papers so I can safely say I am looking forward to meeting everyone on Thursday for our end of year bash and then to going on holiday for a while.
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