The Mary Glasgow Award 2006 was won by Tile Hill Wood School & Language College, Coventry for Immersion Teaching

The original idea for this scheme was inspired by a conference in Canada on immersion teaching, attended by a member of the school’s modern languages department.  On her return to school she and the Head of Geography worked together to plan and teach some trial Geography-in-French modules, in order, initially, to provide challenge and enrichment in the French curriculum. From there, the idea developed so that, by the time we visited the school, they had added Geography, RE and PSHE to the subjects taught through the medium of French, with future plans to add Science, and Spanish as a teaching medium. 

We were impressed by the commitment and enthusiasm of the teachers. An important factor in the success of the project is that there is a genuine partnership between the teachers of French and the teachers of the other subjects involved. Recognizing that teachers of French with no previous experience of teaching geography (for example), and teachers of geography with no previous experience of using French for their teaching need to plan their lessons particularly meticulously, the coordinators of the immersion scheme have ensured that this can happen, via a carefully planned scheme of work, and supportive professional development systems such as peer coaching.

 

 

The winners of the Mary Glasgow Award 2006, Anastasia Neofitou and Judith Woodfield of Tile Hill Wood School, Coventry receive their £2000 cheque from Ann King, Hon Secretary of the Mary Glasgow Language Trust at the Edinburgh Parliament, on the occasion of the European Awards Ceremony, September 2006.