Didn’t know if this should go in here or in the Spanish forum, please move it if it’s in the wrong place!
I was talking with Tom about the Welsh Baccalaureate as his sister has done it this year. There is a compulsory language component, but (from what I gather) unlike language GCSEs or A Levels, there doesn’t seem to be a curriculum, only a requirement to study for 20 hours, show improvement in the chosen language and reflect on their studies in a diary. It strikes me that, maybe once some more material is released, the Spanish through the medium of Welsh course would be perfect for this. Maybe a special school subscription and advertising in schools/colleges could be a way to raise some funds for other languages!
Actually, I say Spanish through the medium of Welsh purely because Tom and his sister were in a Welsh school, presumable English language schools in Wales teach Welsh Bacc in English and so Spanish through English would work too.
It’s good thinking - thank you! We probably have a bit of work to do in terms of standardised testing before we’re a very good fit for how schools like to do things, but it’s definitely something we’d love to do
Done a bit more research now after my late night revelation. This is all from WJEC.
A popular choice is to do a beginners’ language, as this is new and different and the candidate can see immediate progression in 20 hours. The emphasis should be on oral skills. The best practice involves the candidates being taught lessons which aim to link the language skills being acquired, with a specific purpose - for use on holidays, for social use or in their future career. Candidates are introduced to the culture of the country as appropriate.
How is this component assessed?
Candidates will be required to complete the language module page of their Candidate Diary, giving information about:
• the language chosen and why they opted for that language;
• whether they had already studied the language previously;
• what activities they took part in to improve their language skills;
• what progress they made improving their language skills.
The teacher/assessor must sign and date the language module page to validate that the candidate has satisfied the requirements for the language module.
As far as I can see, there is no formal testing, just acknowledgement by a teacher that improvement has been made. If the student has done Spanish previously, say at GCSE, then SSiS will probably not offer enough progression for this, but would be suitable for beginners. And of course, when there’s more languages available it could work for everyone!
That does look as though it might be a fit - thank you very much, Rachel! If they’re meant to see progress in 20 hours, I think we’d probably be able to give some value even to people who’ve done GCSE as well…
Thank you - this goes on my ‘start thinking about it’ list now…
