James Hargest College
James Hargest College is a two-campus, co-educational, year 7–13 school in Invercargill. The school has a roll of 1800 students, drawn from a predominantly Pākehā community with a small number of Māori and Asian families.
Motivation
The school has always provided strong support for the languages programme and has offered study in Māori, Japanese, French, Latin, and German for many years. The languages programme has been based around a one term 'taster' course for year 9 students.
Students have the option to study Japanese, French, and Latin from years 9–13. Te reo Māori is available in the school for year 9 and 10 students, and through a Correspondence School programme at senior levels. German is available to students in years 12 and 13.
Funding pool
"In 2002, we wanted to build on what had already been established," says Karen Thomson, Head of Languages at James Hargest College. "We wanted to improve student achievement and we felt that the best way to do that was through professional development for teachers and resources that would bring the languages to life for students."
"We applied to the Second Language Learning Funding Pool for 2003 because the amount of funding available to the department for professional development and resources at our school is directly proportional to the number of students taking languages," Karen explains. "In order to build the languages department, we needed to find more funding." [Note that the Funding Pool is now known as the Learning Languages Funding Pool.]
The school's goals were to:
- provide professional development opportunities for staff
- provide additional resources to create an authentic language environment for students
- strengthen networks with local language teachers
- provide additional teaching materials such as software, CDs, tapes, dictionaries.
"When the letter came back saying that our proposal had been approved, we were elated and so were the school's senior management team who informed the staff that the Languages Department had won the funding. It's really raised the profile of languages among other staff. We are strongly supported by both staff and senior management."
Professional development
"We started our professional development with an Immersion Day," remembers Karen. "That meant all languages staff were released together and it is rare for a secondary school to have everyone involved in professional development at the same time. We had the adviser working with us, modelling different strategies for teaching languages. Then we split into language groups to focus on improving our own language and teaching skills."
In addition to department-wide sessions, individual teachers also had specific professional development opportunities. "Our French teacher went to Akaroa for a professional development weekend, which was another total immersion experience, and we sent teachers to the New Zealand Association of Language Teachers conference in Christchurch," recalls Karen.
The availability of professional development opportunities was such that at times Karen felt she needed to remind teachers of how fortunate they were to have these opportunities. "Professional development is not always something that is readily available across the school," explains Karen. "But in that year both of our new teachers went to conferences and I had to let them know how unusual that was."
Alongside the professional development sessions, the funding allowed staff to observe their peers teaching a language. "Beginning teachers found it much easier to have someone observe them," comments Karen. "They're familiar with it all because they are observed for other reasons during their training and first year of teaching. But it's much more daunting for experienced teachers who are used to having the classroom to themselves. Once the initial hesitation was over, it was motivating and invigorating for teachers to realise that by sharing ideas their teaching could be improved."
Because of their location at the bottom of the South Island, teachers at James Hargest College were keen to establish links with other teachers working in their target language.
"Networking with other teachers has varied depending on the language," explains Karen. "There are some local teachers who live reasonably close and their networks seem to become very strong, like the Japanese teachers who continue to meet regularly. With other languages, we found that the number of teachers is really small – our Latin teacher networks with teachers in Christchurch and New Plymouth."
"At the same time that we were trying to set up networks, the requirements of NCEA also brought teachers' working relationship closer together," Karen recalls. "Email enables us to keep in touch easily and draw on each other's expertise or discuss things. This part of our plan has had fantastic impact on teachers. They have much more confidence in what they're doing because they're able to check their thinking with others."
Resources
Another key strategy for the school was to provide additional materials for the classroom and resources for students.
The language department had previously acquired six computers that were set up in Karen's classroom. They were older models given by other departments. "They can be slow and often there are problems," comments Karen. "Ideally, we want to establish a computer suite but that's not yet possible. So instead we decided to focus on using ICT for extension and reinforcement activities. It gives students different ways to learn, plus the additional skills associated with ICT because it's interactive – it's another form of listening and processing."
The school used part of their funding to purchase a range of ICT resources and software. "This has brought the language to life for students," says Karen. "It's funny what the students remember or talk about with their friends. This seems to be a big thing for them – using the computers in their target language."
Future plans
"The funding has given a wonderful opportunity to grow languages in our school," Karen sums up. "We have a wide range of languages on offer and now have the resources to make them more appealing to students. The professional development has meant that teachers feel more valued, more confident and skilled. They are able to work together, to support each other in ideas and teaching strategies."
"We have big plans for 2005 with a change of focus that will build on what we've achieved so far," explains Karen. "We are going to introduce Spanish beginning with year 9 students. We will also be merging with two local intermediates from the beginning of the year, so we will be teaching languages for year 7 and 8 students. That means in future we should be able to eliminate the 'taster' programme at year 9, and the increased continuity should lead to increased achievement."
"In the past, we have built on what was established," she concludes. "Because of the funding and the opportunities it brought us, we have been in a position to bring in a big change that will expose all students to language because different things about different languages appeal to different students."