Tag Archives: Scotland

Immigration

In my school, there were a few children who had recently moved to the area from abroad.  Specifically, in the the CE2 class I was working in there were two young boys who had recently moved to France from countries in North Africa.  The teacher of the class explained to me that both these boys had a very poor level of French when they had first arrived and this was a challenge for both the children and the teachers when they had to communicate with one another.

Due to the pupils’ ages, as upper school pupils, when their classmates studied French Literacy and Grammar, these two boys would work from textbooks aimed at the earlier stages.  This level of differentiation seemed quite difficult for the teacher to manage as the boys needed a lot of her attention.  I also wondered whether this language barrier ever made the boys feel secluded from the rest of the class.  However, due to the teacher’s inability to split her time between her and the class the whole day, the boys took part in other lessons with the whole class in other curricular subjects.  This meant that even over the short period that I was in the class, I noticed how much more they had integrated into the classroom environment and were now managing to communicate with their classmates much more confidently.

Immigration is becoming more of a recurring them across Europe and so I feel as though witnessing firsthand how children from other countries with language difficulties are accommodated for was valuable for me in the future.  It was also nice to see how the current political climate regarding immigration in France, which is met with some hostility, did not seem to filter into the school and that these children were not hindered by their cultural differences.

School Culture

Throughout my time in Orléans, I have noticed some key differences in the French lifestyle compared to the Scottish lifestyle, which have been interesting for me to experience.

One thing I have observed during my time here is that the relationships between the children and the teachers are quite different from in Scotland. I have noticed an increased level of respect from the children towards any adult, which is evidenced in some of their mannerisms. For example, whenever another adult enters the classroom, the whole class stands up as a sign of respect to their authority and they then wait to be told to sit back down. In response, I feel as though the teachers are more trusting of the pupils and there is an extra level of maturity from the children, even in CP, which I have seen when I have accompanied the children outside the school grounds.

Perhaps this increased level of maturity comes from the difference in the school structure and the ages at which a child reaches each stage. Children do not start formal schooling until age 6, making them a whole year older and more experienced than the children starting school in Scotland. Equally influential is the amount of time they spend in “maternelle” or nursery school. Children can attend nursery school from the age of 3 until they are 6, though attendance is not compulsory.

Recent debate in France has arose from French President, Emmanuel Macron’s declaration that school will be compulsory from the age of 3 from 2019, which has sparked more concern regarding teacher shortages in France, a large issue.  Cortes (2018) explains in his article for Marianne that if Macron’s plan was to go ahead, a minimum of 800 new teaching positions would have to be created to accommodate what is estimated as a further 25,000 pupils.  This will be difficult for the French Government as they are already facing teacher shortages, with one article explaining that people are not even considering the profession are they are put off by the insufficient wages and how difficult it is to enter the field academically (Bancaud, 2017).  Teacher shortages is an issue that has also plagued Scotland in recent years, however, the cultural aspects of the job, such as the difficult testing to achieve the qualification and the inability for teachers to choose where they want to work has made the profession even less desirable to the French.

Not only is the structure of the school different, the management of the school is also slightly different.  The main difference is that the Headteacher or “directeur/directrice” is part of the teaching staff and is responsible for their own class.  At my school, the teacher was present in the class 4 days a week and the children had another teacher on Tuesdays.  The Ministry of Education (2014) outline three main responsibilities of a Headteacher above and beyond a normal staff member, which are: to have pedagogical control, to control the operation of the school and to maintain relationships with parents and partners of the school.  In Scotland, the Headteacher would take a backseat from teaching in order to perform these extra duties, however, in France, this is not the case.  As a result, I felt as though the Headteacher’s attention was divided quite often as she performed the role of both a teacher and a director simultaneously, which must put a lot of strain on these teachers.

References

Bancaud, D.  (2017)  ‘How to fight against the shortage of teachers in the primary?’, 20 Minutes, 11 October.  Available at: https://www.20minutes.fr/societe/2149171-20171011-comment-lutter-contre-penurie-profs-primaire  (Accessed: 6 April 2018).

Cortes, A.  (2018)  ‘Preschool compulsory from 3 years old: ok, but with which teachers?’, Marianne, 28 March.  Available at :https://www.marianne.net/societe/ecole-maternelle-obligatoire-des-3-ans-d-accord-mais-avec-quels-profs  (Accessed: 4 April 2018).

Ministry of Education  (2014)  The Job of the School Director.  Available at: http://eduscol.education.fr/cid82065/le-metier-de-directeur-d-ecole.html  (Accessed: 5 April 2018).

The Impact of Placement

Overall, my placement has been an enjoyable experience and I have expanded my knowledge on several key issues regarding learning and teaching in the primary school, foreign languages and embracing different cultures.  One of the main benefits of the placement, for me, was having the opportunity to come abroad and experience a primary school from a different cultural perspective.  This has led to me making a lot of comparisons between Scotland and France, which has helped highlight to me some of the great features of school in Scotland and some of the aspects we could perhaps adopt from school in France.  I think that having the opportunity to compare two different education systems has helped me to become more critical and reflective, but it had also caused me to become more passionate about education in Scotland and what it stands for.  In France, their educational philosophies different significantly, they focused a lot more on academic achievement and teacher-led learning, as opposed to the more creative and child-centred learning through discovery and play promoted in Scotland.  These differences were even evident from the aesthetics of the classrooms, which left little to no room for group activities.

Before embarking on this placement, I had began to question whether primary teaching was suited to me after worrying whether I had explored every option.  However, this comparison has really opened my eyes and reassured me that I am following the right path.  This was further confirmed to me after experiencing some level of frustration when I was not given many opportunities to develop my practice and build a relationship with the pupils through teaching.  This was perhaps the biggest challenge of the placement, as I felt as though I was not given the opportunity to reach my full potential and grow as much as I did during first year placement.  However, I do understand that the intense period of observation I did in the school was still very valuable to me as a professional, as I was continually receiving new ideas and learning new techniques from more experienced teachers without the added intensity of having to be responsible for a full class for extended periods of time.

Living abroad has also impacted me on a personal level as this has been the longest period of time that I have spent away from home in Scotland.  Living in Orléans has had it’s challenges, even simple tasks, such as going to the supermarket, have been made quite difficult due to the language barrier and French culture meaning that shops are not open as regularly as in Scotland and the concept of convenience is very different from back home.  I think that from this experience, I have learnt how to be more independent and self-reliant, even just by managing manoeuvring public transport to and from school on my own.  My living situation has also brought out more of my communication skills as I have been living in shared student accommodation for the last 8 weeks.  This has involved having to share one small kitchen with 30 other people and also working with the other girls on my placement to coordinate meals and travel plans etc.

As a whole, I am proud of how I have adapted to being away from home and how I have pushed myself out of my comfort zone by working in a school where I had to speak French.  Being a position where I felt frustrated and unused has made me more determined to prove my worth to a team and so I feel as though when I am on my next placement, I will not be as shy and reserved as I might have been before.

 

Week 5

Monday

As part of a community event, CE2, CM1 and CM2 participated in a race on the grounds of the local sports centre. Each year group had different time slots and competed against other students their age from neighbouring schools. The class I was accompanying, CE2, had their slot at 9:30 or 9:50 depending on which colour category they fell into. In preparation for the race, each class had been participating in practice runs in the school grounds under the coaching of their teachers. The CE2’s, for example, would have to run 1500m on the day, and so the teacher had them practice running this distance in the school grounds so they could work on the time it took them to finish. The practice sessions in school provided many teaching opportunities, a few in particular that I witnessed included: the importance of warming up the body before running and the importance of pace and stamina when running longer distances.

In the days leading up to the race, the children began to record their final times, which were then used to determine whether they would run as a yellow, a blue or a red. When we arrived that the location of the race, the children were directed around the course by the organiser of the event so that they were aware of the course and its boundaries. They then proceeded to pin their running badge identifying their name, school and colour to their shirts in preparation for the race. The yellow group were first to run then the red and blue group.

The whole experience was really good for me. I got to learn more about the responsibilities of a teacher as I was tasked with stopping the traffic to allow the children to cross the road, then later, I was asked to watch over the group who was not running at the time to make sure none of them wandered off etc. These are quite large responsibilities and I was happy to be given these opportunities by the teacher. It was also nice to see how passionate the children were about the race and to see the progress they had made over the past 4 weeks I had been with them.

Tuesday

Today, I asked the CP/CE1 teacher if I could join her in her class today, as I felt that I had been spending a lot of time over the past few weeks in the upper half of the school and I had not observed the earlier stages since the first week, or had the opportunity to teach them yet.

After spending the morning observing French and Maths, I began to recognise some of the differences between the priorities of the teachers at each stage. Particularly in French, this teacher focused a large portion of the time on sounds and phonetics as opposed to grammar, which is heavily pursued in the upper stages. This is quite similar to the norm in Scotland, as, children require a solid foundation in spoken language before moving on to written language.

The teacher explained to me that often children find it difficult to learn to read French, (recent literacy scores) because there is sometimes several ways to write one phonetic sound. For example, “an” and “en” when used in words both sound the same. For this reason, the teacher tends to avoid giving her CPs in the class any texts to read until they are stronger with their phonics. Even the CE1s in the class find reading and writing quite difficult and it is a recurring theme that I have witnessed throughout the school. This perhaps explains why French is given such a large portion of the school curriculum.

In the afternoon, the teacher taught a Maths lesson on right angles where the children had to complete drawing exercises in their workbooks using certain equipment, such as a ruler or a square. The teacher asked me if I could help them with these exercises as they struggle to use the equipment properly. I was able to help some of the children by showing them how to hold the square properly to check for right angles or how to hold the ruler so that their drawings had straight lines. I also explained to one child how all the sides of a square are equal, which prompted her to correct one of her answers. It was nice to have the opportunity to help the children in something other than English and it highlighted to me how Maths is a subject that is universal as I was able to use my knowledge to help these children despite knowing very little French because I could understand the work through the use of shapes and numbers.

After the short break in the afternoon, I was then asked to lead an English lesson on the topic of family. First of all, the teacher had the children sing some English songs that they had learnt to me. The songs were short and catchy, but more importantly, they were repetitive and so the children knew the words very well because they were continually repeating them. The teacher explained to me that because the children are young, she does not let them see the written lyrics before they the words completely off by heart as this can confuse their pronunciation of the words. I like the use of songs for teaching language because they are interactive and engaging for the children. As a teacher of younger pupils, she strongly advocates making language learning a fun experience by using songs, games and stories to teach vocabulary.

For this lesson, the teacher already had a rough plan for the execution and so she provided me with the resources I needed, which included flashcards on family and the bears book, and she also suggested a few games I could play with the flashcards. Out of her suggestions, I decided to play “Tic Tac Toe” with them, where I split the class in half and had them compete against each other as noughts and crosses. The competitive element turned out to be quite successful as the children were focused and engaged in the game because they wanted their team to win. Before beginning the game, I spent a couple of minutes simply revising the different cards by showing the children the picture and asking them what it was. Once the game had started, I invited up team captains to the board to act on behave of their team and listen to which card they wanted them to choose. This helped me see if they understood which card corresponded to the chosen family member.

Afterwards, I read the English storybook the teacher had given me on the three bears. As I was reading the story, I was aware that the children would not fully understand every word, but, like how I have been learning French over the past 4 weeks, they were able to use the context of the pictures to aid their understanding. This is why I would emphasise to them each picture, as well as mimicking the voices of the characters in the book to indicate certain descriptive aspects of their character, such as age and gender.

Overall, today has given me a lot of ideas to consider for when I teach a foreign language in Scotland for future lessons as I can use a lot of what I have learnt. The ideas will be particularly useful for my early years placement next year, and one idea that I really liked was reading a storybook in a foreign language. Therefore, before I leave France, I plan to buy a storybook written in French, which I can use to teach French in the future.

Wednesday

On Wednesdays, I do not often see English being taught at the school because it is only a half day and the teachers like to make sure the focus is on French and Maths in this shorter time frame. This morning, in the CE2 class, the time was roughly split in half between both subjects, making each session about an hour and 20 minutes long. In my opinion, this is quite a long time to focus on just one subject; however, the children today practiced several elements of each subject during this time. In French, they spent a short amount of time writing imaginatively before moving onto reading a text, then finally, deconstructing this text in an effort to improve their spelling and grammar. In Maths, it was similar; the children began with some mental maths, before moving onto written algorithms and finishing with a problem solving worksheet, all of which incorporated addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.

Thursday

Traces by Florence Hinckel

In preparation for a famous author visiting, the CM2s spent much of today working on their class project. As a class, they have been reading a science fiction novel called, “Traces”, written by Florence Hinckel, which is the story of a young boy who is blamed for a crime that has not yet happened by a computer programme designed to identify future criminals. The class have been working on this novel for several weeks, beginning by reading each chapter and then identifying the key moments of those chapters. Now, the teacher has had them reproduce the book themselves in the form of a comic.

I have observed that an A4 sheet of paper represents each chapter, and so, as a class, they would have practiced their summarising and prioritising skills, as well as practising elements of language throughout, such as speech. Another aspect of the comic is the illustrations to represent the scenes and characters, which is another great teaching point in language about different texts. This type of project is therefore a very well rounded example of the children’s literacy skills.

Friday

In the morning, I taught the CE2 class the parts of the body in English. I began the lesson with a quick warm up activity about the weather, as it was the beginning of the day. I then moved onto the parts of the body. I had been asked to do this lesson in advance by the teacher and so she had provided me with the resources she wanted me to use. She informed me that the children had been introduced to the parts of the body yesterday and had a reference sheet already glued into their jotters. So, today, she wanted me to complete a crossword activity with them where they would use this knowledge.

I began by using the PowerPoint she provided me, which had the different parts of the body on it. I would ask the children, “what is this?” for each picture and then pick a child with their hand up to tell me the answer. After eachpicture had been identified, I had the children repeat the name of the body part after me. Once we had completed all the body parts, I asked the children to stand up and follow my instructions in a similar fashion to “Simon Says”. I then proceeded to ask the class to touch different body parts on themselves, for example, “Can you touch your arm?” As they had just began looking at the English for body parts, they found this a bit more difficult cause there was no picture to help them, and so, after asking each question, I would demonstrate the action as well to ensure they understood.

Next, I moved onto the crossword activity and allowed the class around 5 to 10 minutes to complete it on their own, after I had explained the task using a mixture of French and English. As they were completing the activity, I made my way around the classroom to observe their progress and ended up helping a few children. One child, in particular, was rather confused between the hand and the finger. Helping the child was a bit more difficult as I had to use more French than I am confident in, but I was able to establish that he understood what the body part was in French and so I directed him to his previous sheet of the body to help him realise his mistake.

I concluded the lesson by going over the sheet with the whole class on the whiteboard and filling in the correct answers for them. Most of the children seemed to be getting most if not all the answers correct, which was a good indicator that they understood the vocabulary well. The next step for them would be more revision and repetition of the new vocabulary so that, eventually, they are not relying on worksheets and wall displays to help them remember.

In the afternoon, I continued to teach a different class about school in Scotland. The class I was teaching was the CP/CE1 class that I had done family with earlier in the week, though this was my first time teaching this class my own content and so I had to adapt my resources for their age and stage (see Appendix 1). The teacher had already told me that she aims for shorter lessons that are less content heavy when she teaches English because they are young. I, therefore, took this comment from her into account when planning for today and decided that I should just focus on one aspect of School in Scotland, the school uniform. I also took some inspiration from the resources I was given and the lesson that I did on Tuesday by producing my own flashcards of the vocabulary for this topic.

When teaching the lesson, I approached it in a similar way to before by using my PowerPoint I had produced to go through each item of clothing, explaining what it is and asking the children to repeat the word after me. After the children had repeated the vocabulary several times and I was happy with their progress, I decided to do something similar to the activity I did this morning. I asked the children, “raise your hand if you are wearing…?” This was quite ambitious considering the difficulty I had faced executing this task this morning, however, I felt as though the lesson required something more interactive and I have observed over the past week that this class is very good at picking up new content fast. The task was met with some difficulty, especially for the CPs, however, the repetitive nature of the activity meant that the children began to catch on towards the end.

School Uniform Flashcards

I then decided to conclude the session with a game using the clothing flashcards I had made. It was a memory game that the teacher had suggested to me as she had used it before, where the children would turn over two of the overturned flashcards on the whiteboard at a time in an attempt to find a pair of a word and its picture. The game was much easier to explain because the children had a prior knowledge of the format and aim of the game, however, one thing they did struggle with was if they turned over a card with a word on it rather than a picture, they struggled to the read the word despite having a knowledge of the word and not struggling to identify the item of clothing if it was a card with a picture. This highlighted to me how much easier the children do find listening and talking inEnglish as opposed to reading and writing, as they knew all the names of the clothing, but because of their age, they lacked the skills and confidence to read English.

Though, overall, the lesson worked well, the children were engaged and I was confident that they had understood and took on board the new vocabulary I had introduced to them. Now, they just have to continually practice saying these words on a regular basis. I have plans to go back to the class next week fora follow up lesson, where I will revisit the vocabulary and play another game with them. This teacherwas particularly good at giving me feedback as she suggested to me that next time I could perhaps spend even more time simply practicing the vocabulary before moving onto the games. I plan to take this feedback on board and play 

 

Hippo Has A Hat by Julia Donaldson and Nick Sharratt

around with the vocabulary more as a whole class using the larger pictures on the PowerPoint. She also gave me an English book she had on clothing to look at over the weekend, which was very helpful.

 

 

I feel that this week, having the opportunity to teach two lessons in one day has been great for improving my organisational skills, which were what I identified at the beginning of placement as something that I wanted to gain more of. Having the opportunity to produce and use my own resources is also aiding these skills as producing these resources requires a lot of thought and preparation in advance.

Appendix 1 – School Uniform

Week 4

Tuesday

This week, Tuesday was the first day of the school week as yesterday was a public holiday for Easter Monday. I spent the day in the CE2/CM1 class, where I observed lessons in French, Maths and History. For French, they had to do dictation exercise, which I have noticed is quite common in France for teaching grammar and language rules.

As I was observing the Maths lesson, I noticed that the teacher was teaching two different lessons using two separate whiteboards to a class split completely down the middle. I assume that this was due to the two different age groups present in the classroom, however, this is the first sign of differentiated learning I have seen in this school. As I observed the lesson, I noticed that there were a few pupils struggling to keep up with the pace of the lesson and a few racing ahead in their understanding.

When the lesson had finished, I asked the teacher about something I had noticed on the board: letters on the corner of each board resembling initials. She informed me that this told the children what jotter they should be using to do their work; for example, the board had the letters “CB” on it, which stands for Cahier de Brouillon. When I looked up the English for this in my dictionary, I discovered that it meant, “rough workbook/jotter”, and so this specific jotter, which I have seen before in other classrooms is used for different subjects, such as Maths or French, and it encourages the children to show how they have worked something out without constricting them to be neat and tidy.

After lunch, I witnessed a good example of behaviour management from the teacher following an incident in the playground. Although I was not fully able to understand what the incident entailed, I did understand how the teacher dealt with the issue, as she used similar protocol I had read about in theory. First, she heard the story of what had happened from one child’s perspective and then again but from another child’s perspective. The technique used by the teacher here could be categorised as conflict mediation, where the teacher, as a third party, guides the two children in conflict towards a resolution. Gartrell (2013, p351) describes the teacher’s role, as, “making sure both parties are equal contributors to a peaceful settlement”, which, in this instance, she did by allowing each child an equal opportunity to voice their opinion. Through this, the classroom atmosphere feels more democratic and fair for all, which is a key value I have witnessed throughout this school.

Wednesday

As part of a community initiative, the police visited the school today to teach some of the older pupils how to ride a bike safely in the street. Their safety course included breaking responsively, using their arms to signal which direction they wanted to turn and weaving the bike in and out of the cones. Not only does this opportunity highlight the place of the school as a member of the wider “La Chapelle St Mesmin” community, it also highlights a clear cultural difference between France and Scotland. In Scotland, children are often spoken to by the emergency services about issues of public safety, such as crossing the road or the dangers of fire, but learning to ride a bike safely is not something that is consolidated upon in school.

Thursday

Today, I was given the opportunity to do a follow up lesson with CE2 about School in Scotland. Last time, I did not have the opportunity to hand out my worksheets to the children and so this time we filled them out together. I thought this way of doing it was better than giving them the sheets first time round as it meant that more attention could be put to completing the sheets properly. Plus, it was good from an assessment perspective to see how much the children had remembered from the previous lesson, which was quite a lot. I began with the timetable sheet, which I mirrored on the whiteboard using the answers provided to me by the children.

Next, I moved onto the school uniform sheet and went through the vocabulary for this again through asking, “what is this?” then receiving an answer and finally asking the children to repeat the word after me to practice the correct pronunciation. As this sheet was more of a revision sheet than a worksheet, I tasked the children with working in pairs to test each other on the vocabulary, where one showed the other a picture of the clothing and the other had to successfully name that piece of clothing without looking at the caption. Throughout this, I walked around the classroom and encouraged them to use their whiteboards to try and write down their answers. As I was making my way around the classroom, I noticed one girl was sitting alone and did not have a partner for the task so I became her partner and tested her on the items of clothing. This highlighted to me how important it is to continually observe your class throughout the lesson, as, if I had stayed at the front of the class I would have missed this, as well as not being able to hear what was being said by the children in case it was wrong.

Friday

Today, I had another opportunity to accompany the CE2 class on a school trip. This time, they were going to a cinema to see a series of short animation films by one director. The cinema that we visited is called, “Cinema Les Carmes” and is situated in the centre of Orléans, so we had to take a tram to get there. Taking the tram was a new experience for me and I found it interesting how the school used public transport when they were going places, the whole experience felt very relaxed and the teacher did not seem phased by taking such a large group of children out of the school to use public transport. The teacher explained to me that the cinema we were going to often hosted events like this one exclusively for school children and many of the films they show have an educational element to them. This is a great resource for the school to have and film and theatre seems to be a large part of the school’s culture as they classes often visit film screenings and plays.

Accompanying us on the trip was a parent of one of the pupils, who was very friendly and took an interest in my role in the school and why I was there. It was great to have this opportunity to speak with another adult and gain more of an insight into the class from her perspective, as she has known many of the children from a young age. I was also grateful that she was so accepting of my presence as I have been worried about how I am perceived by the parents because I don’t speak a lot of French, but I could tell she appreciated my attempts to communicate with her.

Reference

Gartrell, D.  (2013) A Guidance Approach for the Encouraging Classroom.  Boston: Cengage Learning.

Week 3

Tuesday

Today, I am back in the CM1/CM2 class. Since I have been in this class a few times, I am beginning to notice some of their routines. For example, they begin each day practicing their English by answering some basic questions about the date and the weather. This is similar practice to what I saw on placement in a Scottish school last year where the children did the same but in French. I think that warm up activities like these are beneficial for the children as they require the constant revision of basic content, keeping it fresh. I was told by the teacher that the high school wants these children to become more solid in their English writing skills, which is why the teacher gets them to write out their answers on their white boards so that they are practicing spelling and grammar. This is something I will keep in mind when organising lessons for the upper half of the school in the future.

So far in this school, I have not seen a lot of creative work, however, today I observed the children take part in a writing activity entitled, “jogging d’ecriture”. This was a five-minute opportunity for the children to write a story with no guidance regarding the content. The teacher told me that this activity had motivated many reluctant writers from when she first introduced it. She felt that the activity was a great source of enjoyment for the children as it was a time where they could be creative and free from any constraints. When I was on my first year placement, I came across many reluctant writers and I struggled to motivate them, which is why I liked this little activity in particular. Just as important as the writing was the opportunity to share the stories with the class. Sharing a piece of writing is a very big step for many children and the atmosphere created in the classroom was encouraging and filled with enjoyment and praise. This was such a nice activity to observe and one that I will keep in mind for future placements as it serves a great purpose in developing writing and presenting skills.

Wednesday

In light of recent events in France, I saw how current affairs can impact a school and the curriculum. Last Friday, “gunman hijacked a car near the southwestern town of Carcassonne and then shot at a group of four national police officers returning from a morning jog,” before he then, “stormed into a supermarket, opened fire and held employees and customers hostage for several hours” (McAuley, 2018). Today, the teacher spent some time at the start of the day speaking to the children about terrorism. She conducted this in the form of a question and answer session, where the children could ask her questions about either the attack or terrorism in general and she would attempt to answer their questions in a safe and secure environment. This was with the CM1/CM2 class and so it may not have been appropriate further down the school, but I felt it was important for the children to have the opportunity to ask these questions and talk about these very current issues impacting their country. Having an awareness of the world and the issues that affect it is just one of the steps towards these children becoming more active and civic members of their community and society. In a follow up to the session, the upper half of the school gathered in the playground before break for a poignant tribute to the victims of this attack by observing a minute of silence. This was something the children observed and respected well.

After break, I had the opportunity to teach my first English lesson. The teacher had informed me yesterday that she wanted me to teach the children about school in Scotland, including the uniform and the timetable of the school week. I, therefore, produced a PowerPoint presentation (see Appendix 1) that included these elements and also included some of the aspects of Scottish schools that were different to France. Accompanying the PowerPoint was a print out of a mock timetable with the school subjects in English (see Appendix 2) and the children had to fill in the blanks with the equivalent in French.

As this was my first time teaching, I was very nervous and felt as though I rushed though some of the content. Upon reflection, I should have taken more time to consolidate the key vocabulary in the PowerPoint, such as the clothing items of the school uniform, to ensure the children fully understood it. Also, my phrases about the school week were in English and so a lot of the children were struggling to understand. I did not realise this issue and tried to move on too quickly, which prompted the teacher to step in and guide the children in their understanding. This is something I should have been aware of and perhaps I should have learnt more French phrases in preparation for the lesson so that I could check for understanding, such as, “do you understand the first phrase?” or “what does this say in French?”

However, one thing the teacher did seem happy with was the timetable worksheet I had produced as she noted that the children could glue this in their jotter and use it for revision purposes. The worksheet directly corresponded to the timetable I had displayed of the whiteboard and so I could help them with the answers in an accessible way. Though one thing I would have perhaps done differently was ask the children to come up to the board and write the answers, as this is a common technique I have observed the some of the teachers using in the classroom. This, I think, would have made the lesson feel more interactive and may have helped to improve the attentiveness of the children, who were becoming quite restless.

Overall, I think the lesson was ok, I felt that I had good resources to support the children’s learning, however, I was nervous and so my delivery was a little rushed and could certainly be improved.

Thursday

 Today, I did the same lesson with the CE1/CE2 class at the beginning of the day. Before I could start, the teacher received a phone call and had to step out the classroom. The class began to get restless during this period and so I decided to do a small warm-up activity that I had seen them do before with their teacher to try and refocus them. I think this showed good initiative, as I was unsure of how long the teacher would be away and I felt the behaviour of the class needed managed. Doing a warm-up activity also relaxed me much more and consequently, I did not rush this lesson.

This time when I began with discussing the school uniform, I spent a lot longer explaining the vocabulary. During my time here, I have picked up a few key instructional phrases and so I asked the children these instructions in English first then repeated the phrase in French to ensure they had all understood. For example, when I wanted them to practice pronouncing the different articles of clothing in the school uniform, I said, “repeat after me” and then consolidated this by saying, “répéter après moi”. With the older children, the English will usually suffice, but, when I begin teaching in the early stages, short phrases like “régarder moi” and “écouter”, will be very useful for behaviour management.

Another aspect of the lesson I thought was an improvement from yesterday was that it was more interactive. Yesterday, the teacher had the children ask me what some of the subjects on the timetable were, but today, I asked the children the question, “What is…?” for each of the subjects and they answered in French. I then had different children come up and write the French under the English on the whiteboard. This was more interesting for the children and they seemed more engaged than the class before. I also enjoyed this lesson much more because the children were so engaged and willing to participate.

One thing that I would have changed, though, was that I didn’t have the worksheet resource ready for the children. This means that they do not have any concrete work from the session to put in their jotters and use for revision at a later date. This is not an example of good organisational skills, however, I had no prior knowledge of when I would be teaching this lesson. The lack of a structured plan for my day is something I am struggling with, as I do not know what to prepare for when. I am, therefore, learning that it is worth being over prepared and I have begun preparing a bank of English lessons ready to use when I am asked to teach.

Other than this, I felt that the lesson was a vast improvement on yesterday’s lesson as it flowed at a better pace and I took more of an authoritative role in the classroom by relying on the teacher much less. One piece of feedback I did receive was that the teacher would like a revision resource for the school uniform (see Appendix 3), which is something I will produce in preparation for tomorrow, when I teach this lesson again to CM2.

In the afternoon, we had a meeting with Nina to mark the middle of our placement. We all sat in her office for a casual talk about the progress of our placement and how life in France was going. As the four of us were in the same meeting, I had the chance to hear some of the things the others had been doing at their schools. Hearing about some of the challenges they had faced and how they had resolved them was interesting and helpful for me to hear. They have slightly more teaching experience than me and so the things that they shared about these experiences were valuable to me, personally.

I have also began to realise more the value and significance of my extended observational period as I have learnt so much about French schools and the curriculum in France, as well as observing excellent teaching practice which I can now emulate in my lessons. One thing, though, I do wish had improved more is my level of French, as I feel as though I am understanding a lot more when I listen but I am still lacking confidence in my speaking skills. I plan to make improving my French my main goal for the end of placement review with Nina in 3 weeks time.

Friday

 In the afternoon, I taught my lesson on School in Scotland to the CM2 class. Beforehand, I was able to print both resource sheets for the children and I was much more organised. However, when I begun to teach, I was faced with a technical issue with the PowerPoint because the pictures did not appear on the screen. As a result, I had to deviate from my original plan and improvise by using the worksheet I had produced, which had the pictures on it anyway, to explain the vocabulary. This was not what I had originally wanted, but I think it was an appropriate alternative given the circumstances and I feel as though I handled the issue well so that the lesson could continue.

I presented the lesson in a very similar way to yesterday, as I knew this technique would work well. I also incorporated the new worksheet into the lesson, as well as the timetable worksheet. As a result, the children could work on their timetable at the same pace as we were filling out the timetable on the board and so they were learning it as they wrote it. Now, they have a resource with all the school subjects in English and the correct corresponding word in French to use for revision purpose.

Though, one thing that was slightly different about this lesson was the timing, as they afternoon had provided a longer teaching slot than the others. Therefore, a lesson that had ran long enough on Wednesday and Thursday finished to early today. At that point, the teacher stepped in and asked the children to work in pairs quizzing each other on the new vocabulary they had learnt. This is something I could have thought of prior to the lesson so, in future, I should plan a few extra finishing activities in case the teaching slot is longer than I had anticipated.

Though, despite this, I feel as though the lesson went well. The class had been quite disruptive for their own teacher throughout the day but I managed to keep them engaged and used some the phrases I had been learning and practicing to keep their behaviour under control. I also took the opportunity to move around the classroom when the children were working in pairs to observe and assess their level of understanding. Next week, I hope to have the opportunity to revise this content with the classes I taught so that I can see how well they understood and can remember.

In summary, I have felt a lot happier at the end of this week of placement. I am becoming more familiarised with the children and the teachers, which is helping me to become more involved within the school and the class. My early opportunities to teach went well and I feel more confident about teaching in the future. It is great to teach the children about Scotland and some of the cultural differences between France and Scotland, as I am passionate about this and so I hope these opportunities continue.

References

McAuley, J.  (2018) ‘French police officer who swapped himself for gunman’s hostage dies’, The Washington Post, 24 March.  Available at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/hostage-situation-in-southern-france-being-investigated-as-terror-attack/2018/03/23/64649f1e-2e93-11e8-8ad6-fbc50284fce8_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.ce493ead79fd  (Accessed: 28 March 2018).

Appendices

Appendix 1 – School in Scotland

Appendix 2 – Scottish School Timetable

Appendix 3 –  The School Uniform

The French School System

Before going on placement, I took part in a lesson with a French Teacher on my first day in Orléans.  This was a taster session on the structure and characteristics of the French School System.  The session was given in French, so it was challenging to follow, however, I surprised myself on how much I was able to understand.  The information received on the French school system was very interesting and has been useful to know prior to my placement, as there are some differences between the system in France and in Scotland.

One of the key differences I learnt was that, in France, children are not obliged to start school until the age of 6, where as in Scotland, they begin school at the age of 5.  Another very apparent difference between France and Scotland is that French schools are described as “laique”, or secular in English.  A secular school system separates the church from the state, with the view that religion is a private affair and not for public life, therefore pupils do not express the customs of their religion and the classrooms do not have any religious symbols, such as a Bible or a Qur’an present.  This is to emphasise the French values of libertié, égalité and fraternitié, as the children view each other as the same and, therefore, equal.  As a result of this, French teachers do not teach Religious Education, unlike in Scotland, where Religious Education is compulsory.  Instead, French children learn about how to become valuable and civic members of society.  There are some schools is France where religion is part of the school, however, these schools are part of the private sector and so they are not free to attend.

The French school system is separated into four cycles, which encompass children from ages 3 to 18.  These four cycles span four different buildings, as children begin school at “maternelle” (nursery), move to “école élementaire/primarie” (primary school), then “collége” and “lycée” (high school).  By the time pupils reach their last year of “lycée”, they will have sat exams to receive, “le Baccalauréat”, a leaving certificate, which can be achieved in specific streams, such as, the sciences or literature.

“école élementaire/primarie” is the equivalent of the Scottish primary school and it is where pupils work through Cycle 2 and 3. Also included in Cycle 3 is “sixiéme année de collège”, known as first year of high school in Scotland, as the French Government wanted to ensure a successful transition between the two school by continuing on the skills and knowledge obtained in Primary School and encouraging Primary and Secondary teachers to work together to bridge this gap. This was something I thought as similar to the customs of Scottish Education, as Primary 7’s in Scotland often take part in transition days and special events at their cluster high school to prepare them for the transition.

Teacher employment is also very different in France than in Scotland.  I was informed that teaching is a very popular career and jobs are sparse.  Like Scotland, France is split up into different regions making up 13 regions on the mainland in total.  The region we are staying in is Centre – Val de Loire and so students who study to become teachers in this region will sit an exit  exam, called the “concours” to become teachers.  However, they are then not guaranteed a job in this region and may have to travel or move far away depending on the demand for teachers.  Therefore, teachers in France do not get to choose what school they want to work in, which is a definite downfall for prospective teachers who may have family commitments or location preferences.

Overall, I found the differences between the two systems fascinating, and there are definitely pros and cons for each.  When evaluating the French system, one aspect I particularly liked was the structure of four cycles used to split up the different stages of school.  The use of cycles groups several years together so that there is communication between these years, thus ensuring a steady level of progression within and between the cycles.  However, personally, a major con in France is that the education system is secular, as for me, a child’s religion is a part of their identity.  Children spend around 30 hours a week in school, a huge portion of their childhood and so to spend this amount of time suppressing a part of your identity is something I disagree with.

References

École supérieure du professorat et de l’éducation (2017)  Livret d’accueil 2017-2018.  [pdf].  Orléans: ESPE.