Greg Horton

Just sent a letter to Ofqual about MFL grading in context of new GCSE

He then went on to win the set!

One nice thing about speaking a foreign language is picking up things a sportsperson says during a match which never reaches the commentary. Alcaraz has just said "No sé que hacer" to his trainer!

Will you be appearing for the Irish football team? The next Andy Townsend?

It's strange that, barring a few words and phrases, Australian English has deviated very little, given its location and south Asian influences. Interesting though that it always uses a singular verb in statements like "Australia wins" and "England has lost".

I am so disappointed with BBC bias. Obsessed with migrants and Farage. Recently juxtaposed migrant crossings feature with report on a migrant assassin. Farage coming out of court was big enough to be live breaking news. Don't want to pay me tax for this.

A news headline today that some immigrants to the UK will need A Level standard language skills. I thought of @theniceman.bsky.social and wondered if great works of literature, film and social issues will be tested!

I recall an Ofsted visit when the kids had no books because I had left them at home (unmarked!) and the inspector said it didn't matter as she gained all the evidence of progress through TL interaction and chats with students. Glorious!

Interesting article, thanks for sharing. Some MFL Leads need to stand up to SLT when it comes to book monitoring and unreasonable expectations.

But switching between languages can be very disconcerting and stop a candidate from getting in the zone.

Does anyone else find it absurd and counter-productive that one awarding body advocates transitions in the speaking test to be announced in English?

I was only listening to Hejira the other day after a long time away. As brilliant as ever.

I was a bit alarmed to hear from an MFL teacher that speaking opportunities in class are limited because so many students are granted exemption from having to answer questions. Shame on any SLT pandering to this snow flake mentality and ignoring the moral imperatives of education.

The paradox of this spec is that students' productive language is likely to be quite different to the set vocab.

As I recall, it was talking about German literature rather than playing football because it's interesting!

Interesting to hear that an official scientific study has proven that we speak a second language better after a couple of drinks. I remember having two pints of Holsten before my degree speaking assessment!

I recall doing primary MFL outreach a few years ago and being told that my 30 minute weekly language lessons wouldn't be required for the entire spring term as the kids were being prepared for SATs!!????

There is one thing worse than Ofsted, and that's SLT monitoring excessively in the name of Ofsted.

Without any encouragement, my granddaughter actually said to me she wasn't too concerned about her SATs as it was all only to make the school look good.

One of the most ludicrous educational terms I've heard applied to MFL is 'compassionate assessment'. Exams should be rigorous but fair, not aiming to empathise with candidates. The results should also be fair, but only the banishment of severe grading will achieve that.

When I learnt German at school, the Swiss city of Basel was one of those places that changed its name in English. After watching the Women's Euros, it seems to have become Basel in English. I wonder what the reason is. Easier to pronounce than the rather weird Basle?

However, it is an Unprepared conversation so making notes should only help to an extent ie a formulaic structure

I'll say it again that a GCSE Reading aloud task with no assessment of intonation is absurd. In fact, you can flat-tone your way through the entire speaking test and gain the same mark as a student with natural cadence. Well done, new subject content.

A successful ALLSCIOW re-launch at So'ton Uni. 17 in attendance, including one from the Isle of Wight. Thought-provoking presentations, high quality discussion and networking.

Things have been a little quiet for the ALL south coast and Isle of Wight branch. Tomorrow is our re-launch workshop at So'ton Uni. Hopefully the start of bigger things.

Connected to this, it would also be good to have a GCSE subject content which isn't a platform for showing off a niche knowledge of grammatical terminology.

Nice to hear former player John Aldridge saying that the most important thing for Trent Alexander Arnold to do at Real Madrid is to learn Spanish as quickly as possible.

The joys of languages. My bi-lingual son was caught by the cops in Barcelona cycling through a red light. He pretended he was English, hoping to escape punishment. However, hearing the cops being rude about him, he involuntarily blurted out '¿Qué ha dicho, cabrón?' He was fined 1000 Euros!!!

*in