A new information leaflet on how to select mentors for probationer teachers has been launched by the General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS).
Providing guidance on everything from selection and training to support, the leaflet aims to help key stakeholders select the people who will mentor probationer teachers.
A copy of the complete guidance document is available on […]

The website for number 10 Downing Street has just launched a new foreign language section. Visitors to the site are now able to access a selection of information on the British Government in a variety of languages.
The new addition includes sections on both the present day cabinet and its history, Gordon Brown’s biography, a list […]

Today sees the launch of the MFLE’s Maximising Potential, a new online resource for teachers to support inclusion in modern languages.
Written by educational consultant Hilary McColl and Catriona Oates, professional services officer at Scottish CILT, it supports individual modern language teachers and modern language departments in meeting the needs of an ever-widening range of learners.
In collaboration with […]

A man whose wife has Alzheimer’s disease is appealing for Bulgarian speakers to help her communicate after she ‘forgot’ how to speak English. Petranka Davies, 81, lives in Winchester but was born in Bulgaria and used to be fluent in six languages. Dementia has affected her ability to speak English but when she is spoken […]

Top grades have improved again on average in the GCSE exam entries across England, Wales and Northern Ireland, this BBC article reports. The gap between boys and girls continues to narrow. Science entries rose, but French and German fell. However, there was a 3% increase in the number of entries for Spanish and other modern […]

The Independent reports that a further decline in the take-up of modern foreign languages will be revealed when GCSE results are published on Thursday. Figures will show the number of 16-year-olds taking French and German has slumped to its lowest level for more than a decade.
French entries will have more than halved since 2001 when […]

The Evening Times reports that record numbers of parents are enrolling their children at Glasgow’s new Gaelic superschool.
The number of secondary pupils joining the £4million campus in the West End - combined with those at the Gaelic unit at Hillpark Secondary - has increased by 32% in the last year. The school, near Charing Cross, […]

Final scrutiny of a plan to launch a dedicated digital television channel for Gaelic programmes has begun, the BBC website reports.
The Gaelic Digital Service is to be run as a partnership between BBC Scotland and Seirbheis nam Meadhanan Gàidhlig (Gaelic Media Service).
The BBC Trust has begun a public value test and independent regulator Ofcom has […]

Hibs boss John Collins today revealed in the Scotsman that he wouldn’t have signed French-speaking players if he didn’t speak the language.
Patrick Noubissie became the seventh member of Collins’ squad with a Gallic connection on signing a two-year contract, joining Guillaume Beuzelin, Thierry Gatheussi, Abdessalam Benjelloun, Merouane Zemmama, Yves Ma-Kalambay and Torben Joneleit.
But, while former Monaco […]

The BBC reports that an archive of the Scots language is now available all over the world thanks to a comprehensive new website.
Researchers at Glasgow University have completed work on the online resource, the Scottish Corpus Of Text & Speech (SCOTS) Project, which contains more than four million words in Scots and Scottish English. As well […]