Alan Lee

Unfair grading and its impact in Languages Imagine you are selling petrol for £1.40 a litre, and the other garages down the street all sell it for £1.30. Should you be surprised or c...

whoteacheslanguages.blogspot.com/2025/08/unfa...

Interesting to speculate on the impact of making languages gcse significantly easier than others but leaving its prominence in performance tables untouched. It would boost entries straight away - and while those who passed would pass at a lower level, there’d be a lot more of them…

One thing that costs nothing which would revitalise languages in England. A sure-fire way, costing no money, to revitalise and reinvigorate take up of MFL at GCSE. Do you see what this is? It's anonymous targets fo...

whoteacheslanguages.blogspot.com/2025/01/one-...

Calls for language GCSEs to be graded less harshly Analysis also suggests computer science is graded most harshly

schoolsweek.co.uk/calls-for-la...

Grading severity at Key Stage 4 in 2024 - FFT Education Datalab A new edition of our occasional series examining how pupils' grades in different subjects at Key Stage 4 differ to those they achieve in GCSE English language and maths

Is there anybody NOT retweeting this until something is done about it? Because it's not exactly hard to fix.

ffteducationdatalab.org.uk/2025/05/grad...

Not just me then! Worrying that I might still feel like that in 20 years though!

Gap Fill with a twist Gap fills are a favourite activity in language learning lessons. Either with words to select from a word bank, or with free choice of the w...

whoteacheslanguages.blogspot.com/2025/04/gap-...

How to know if a word is in the GCSE vocab list: www.multilingprofiler.net

Graphic of 10 aspects of good MFL lesson planning.

This was shared on LinkedIn by Juliette Claro. I would not see this as a sequence of steps, but the content is good imo.

It’s Teaching Assistant Recognition Day! (TARD?) Thank you for all your hard work - couldn’t do this job without you all!

Great question! I look forward to reading about what people think the threshold concepts are in languages. Phonics is surely a key threshold concept. Troublesome and something which, when a learner gets it, makes them go “Ohhhhh!” ☝🏻

Calling all MFL teachers in the UK! Let's assemble!

go.bsky.app/Q7YeNDx

Working memory: education’s unfinished revolution Researchers say understanding the concept of working memory is crucial. But to make a difference in schools, better training, screening, assessments and curricular design are needed, finds Holly Korbe...

I don't know if other EPs find the #workingmemory article in the TES saddening given how long we've known about its influence as a factor in learning & #SEND, & how little acknowledgement it receives in schools & training #executivefunction #edusky #edupsychs www.tes.com/magazine/tea...

All - Bluesky Directory A curated collection of all things relating to the Blue Sky social media platform.

If youre still looking for your tribe, here’s a directory of hundreds of starter packs covering all interests and searchable by keyword. Repost and check it out.

I was a bit in limbo for a bit then clicked on Follow All for the “Teachers” and “MFL Teachers” starter packs and I’m away! Loving BlueSky. Just curating my feed by removing the ones who post stuff I’m not in to and adding the odd new account.

If you are a language teaching trainee or RQT and need advice, don’t hesitate to make contact. Happy to help if I can.

A brief history of ‘learning’ versus ‘acquisition’ in second language education. Could be a good primer for non-specialists. frenchteachernet.blogspot.com/2015/05/seco...

In my efforts to build up a network of fellow language teachers I have discovered that MFL stands for "Modern Foreign Languages" as well as "Mums for Liberty"! 😐

Golden Silence There's something magical about a silent classroom. Students are focused, heads are down, pens are busily scratching away. Participation Ratio is high, and you can almost feel the learning in the room...

Your Sunday read: Golden Silence

achemicalorthodoxy.co.uk/2021/11/07/g...