This one somehow slipped under the radar until today. The Sunday Times reported on 18 September 2005 (”Teachers released to refocus on the three Rs”) that more time would be released from the “crowded” curriculum, with a recommendation that teachers “should be allowed to spend less time on peripheral subjects… and also allowed to cut […]

Schools will soon have the built-in capacity to make Voice over Internet phone calls - you will be able to call anywhere in the world for free because you’re not using the phone, you’re using the internet.
Free tools already exist to do this but the downloadable programmes (like Skype) are blocked in most schools. Also, […]

Seven out of 10 people have tried to learn a language at some point in their life and most wish they could speak one more fluently, a survey found. And nine out of 10 people want their children to learn foreign languages at primary school, said the poll for the OCR exam board.
Read more on […]

I was lucky enough to be invited to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, London, to pick up the European Award for Languages for Musselburgh Grammar School, along with Morgane Leroux, who is helping to carry on the successful weblog and podcast exchanges this year.
Sir Trevor McDonald gave hearty handshakes to the winners (although that seemed […]

The European Day of Languages celebrates linguistic diversity on Monday 26th September. Events are planned across Europe from a conference on regional languages in Armenia to last Saturday’s debate on Cornish development.
In Belgium several events are looking at the threat to European linguistic diversity faced with the ongoing expansion of English usage. One university seminar […]

The BBC reports that growth in communities teaching their own languages in the UK should be seen as an educational asset, language experts have said. Fewer pupils are studying language GSCEs but more communities are teaching their languages, say researchers. More than 60 languages are being taught in communities, promoting bilingualism, says CILT, the National […]

I had the good fortune to be chairing this well attended session at SETT. I had previously heard lots about eTwinning without knowing how schools can get involved in the first place. Well, that was all made very clear thanks to a very clear introductory presentation by Matt Cresswell and Susan Linklater of the British […]

A national schools intranet digitally linking Scotland’s 800,000 teachers and pupils came a step closer today. Education Minister Peter Peacock awarded ICT specialists RM a five-year £37.5 million contract to develop the intranet, the first project of its type anywhere in the world.
When the intranet goes live in early 2007 it will:

Offer pupils and teachers […]

Some of you might have trouble viewing the MFLE Blog on the Safari browser for Apple Mac. All you need to do is go to the File menu and empty the Cache (or press Apple+E). Reload the page and you should see the blog in all its glory.

British Telecom’s Schools Awards are focusing on Speaking and Listening being at the heart of everything a school does. If ever there was a reason for podcasting - creating online radio shows - to become more of a norm in Scottish schools then this is it!
The MFLE will be putting up its own podcasts during […]