Category: THS Faculty of Languages and Literacy

 

March is always a busy month in school as we approach the Qualifications Scotland exam diet in April and May and our Senior Phase students prepare for the weeks ahead.

Assessments – over the next week or so our S4 -S6 students will undertake a number of assessments to help staff arrive at an estimate for exam performance.  The estimate is based on assessment evidence and not necessarily how we believe your young person will perform but what we have evidence for at this stage.

Supported Study continues and we would ask you to encourage your young person to attend.  N5 English takes place every Tuesday after school and Higher English takes place every second Monday, the next session will be on Monday 9th March.

Easter School – invitations will come out shortly for English and Spanish at Easter School.  We would encourage all of our young people to take advantage of this opportunity.

Interventions – we have already started a programme of interventions on Friday afternoons from 1pm-2.30pm We target young people who we feel could benefit from an intervention, with parents receiving an email and young people encouraged to attend by their class teacher.  We would ask that young people stay for the whole session to maximise the benefit.

The programme is as follows:

Friday 6th March – Higher English Critical Essay/ Higher Spanish Listening

Friday 13th March – N5 English Scottish text / Higher Spanish Reading

Friday 20th March – Higher English RUAE/ Higher Spanish Directed Writing

Friday 27th March – S5/6 N5 RUAE

If your young person does not receive an invited but would like to come along please tell them to come along.

World Book Day 2026 – this Thursday we will celebrate World Book Day with a range of activities in class relating to reading and the world of books.  All young people will receive a £1 voucher which can be exchanged for one of the World Book Day special books which are generally available in major supermarkets or can be put towards any other book.

In addition to this we will host a range of events for staff to promote reading across the wider staff.  As well as Book Bingo we will host a staff book swap which also promotes our status as a Laudato Si school by remoting reuse.

SCIAF- next week we will be taking S2 out of Languages for  one period as part of their sponsored walk for SCIAF.  Please support this event by sponsoring your young person.

Higher English Folios – gentle reminder that these should be handed in to the class teacher by Monday 16th March.

As you can see we have a busy few weeks between now and the end of term.  Please encourage your young person to work hard and support us as we work with them.  If you have any comments or questions then please email me on NLBurtonM@northlan.org.uk or by phoning the school office on 01698 274976.

Mrs Burton 

 

 

After a very busy month with Prelims and our Literacy pilot we were delighted to welcome the start of February.

Prelim Results

All of the young people in S5-6 should now have had their assessment results back and will have the opportunity to discuss these with their teachers in the days ahead.  There will also be an opportunity to discuss results and next steps at the S5-6 Parents’ Evening next week on Thursday 12th February.

National 5 Folios 

We are in the final stages of completing these with the young people and have to the commend our N5 candidates who have worked so hard on these.  Once the final touches have been added these will be packed away and sent to Qualifications Scotland where they will be externally assessed.

Higher Folios 

These are ongoing and there is still an opportunity for young people to attend folio clinic on a Friday afternoon where they can work on their own or they can book for support from a member of the English staff.

Modern Languages Assignments 

The National 5 students are working on the final stages of their assignments so that these can be completed shortly.  Again these are send to Qualifications Scotland for external assessments.  Well done to the Higher Spanish students who have already completed these.

Talking Assessments 

N5 and Higher Spanish students are preparing their talk assessments which are undertaken in school and scores sent to Qualifications Scotland. Watch this space for finalised dates.

Interventions 

Every year we offer a range of supports for our young people preparing for exams in both English and Spanish.  As well we folio clinic and supported study which operate on a sign up basis we also offer targeted workshops for young people whose teachers feel they would benefit from an intensive workshop.  This week we start with S4 N5 Scottish text.  Emails will be issued to parents inviting young people to come along and class teachers will also speak to young people inviting them along.

If your young person is not invited but would like to attend please ask them to come and speak to me (Mrs Burton).

Literacy Pilot 

Our young people in S1 and S2 are loving the opportunity to work with a wide range of texts while they explore Climate Change and its impact.  As we move on to the writing the young people are showing just how much they’ve learned both about Climate Change and writing !  We can’t wait to show off what they have produced.

Welcome

Today we welcomed two student teachers into the Faculty.  Lucy McMullan joins the Modern Languages staff while Amy Orrick joins the English team.  We are delighted to welcomed them both and look forward to working with them in the months ahead.

As ever if you have any questions or suggestions then please get in touch !

Mrs Burton

 

 

S5/6 Prelims

After a busy few weeks all S5/6 Prelim papers in English have been marked and all our internal quality assurance completed.   Young people should get papers back this week.  Please take time to discuss these results with your young person and think about what is best for them moving forward.  As ever if you require any information or help with this Parents’ Evening will be on Thursday 12th February, or you can contact the Pupil Support Teacher responsible for your young person.

All young people will engage in learner conversations with their class teacher in the days ahead to discuss results and future progress. We will also go over the Prelim in class to allow young people to evaluate their own performance.

Spanish results  should  be available by the end of the week as the exams only took place on Wednesday and Thursday of last week.

Higher Candidates should now focus on their folio of writing which is due by the middle of February and which is worth 30% of the final award.  Folio clinic is available every Friday from 1pm – 2.30pm to allow young people to work on their folio.

In class S5-6 classes will move on to study a second literary text for critical essay in the final exam.

National 5 Folios are due this week so these should be being finalised currently.

S4

National 5 Folios are due this week so these should be being finalised currently.

Some young people are finishing off Literacy unit assessments to ensure as many young people as possible achieve the Level 5 Literacy Award this session.

Our S4 classes are all working on a literary text with a view to writing an extended critical essay on the text.  Our N5 students will use this in the final exam, while our N4 students will use it to produce their Added Value Unit which is the largest assessment at N4.

Welcome

Today we are delighted to welcome Rebecca Cope to the English Department to cover for Miss Moore who has been absent since before Christmas.  Miss cope comes to us from Caldervale HS and we are delighted to welcome her to the Team.

Trip !!!

Many people have been asking for details of a trip to Spain which was mentioned earlier in the year.  We are waiting on the Travel Agent coming back to us with prices for later in the year.  As soon as we have this information we will get it to you.  Thank you so much for your patience.

NLC Literacy Pilot 

We are loving having Mrs Darroch and Miss Marshall  from NLC’s pedagogy team working with us on our non-fiction Reading and Writing project on climate change.  Staff and young people are thoroughly enjoying this new way or working and we can’t wait to share the results with you !  Watch this space for examples of what our young people have produced.

If you have any questions or suggestions then please feel free to contact me NLBurtonM@northlan.org.uk   Thank you for your continued support of your young person and their work in Languages and Literacy.

Mrs Burton

S4 Progress Report Results 

Our S4 students will this week receive the results of the recent Progress Assessments.  Following this they will engage in learning conversations with their class teachers to discuss next steps on the journey towards the SQA exam diet.  If you have any concern, or wish to discuss, your young person’s result then please speak to the appropriate. Pupil Support teacher.

S5-6 Prelims 

With the Prelim diet starting on Monday 12th January we would encourage our young people to undertake some revision over the holidays, balancing their studies with time to relax before the exam diet.  English students have a critical essay to complete for Monday 5th so they can get individualised feedback prior to the Prelim.  It is important this homework is completed and handed in on time.

British Council – Reading for Pleasure Project

The Languages Faculty are very excited to announce that we have recently been paired with Wirgan Middle School in Morocco, as part of a ‘Reading for Pleasure’ programme designed by The British Council, an organisation that promotes the English language worldwide.

Miss Murphy, from the Modern Languages department was lucky enough to be selected to attend a training event held in Marrakech last week, along with twenty-four other teachers from the UK and twenty-five teachers from Morocco. The Moroccan Government are keen to develop French as their official second language and this project is part of that initiative. Also present, was the UK Ambassador to Morocco, as well as the Moroccan Ministry of Education. The partnered schools will complete a project together between December and March, to encourage teenagers to read for enjoyment and to foster cultural links. Watch this space for more news of the work undertaken by our young people to foster links with their partner school in Morocco, particularly given last week’s World Cup draw !

Thanks 

This has been a very busy year for the faculty at an exciting time for us.  I wish to thank all of our parents and carers for their tireless support.  Have a happy and holy Christmas and we look forward to working with our young people and their families in 2026.

Mrs Burton

We were delighted to welcome back our young people after the Christmas Holidays.  Last term was particularly busy for pupils and staff and we hope everyone had some time to enjoy with their friends and family doing things which make them happy. We are now headlong into a very busy term as we prepare for SQA examinations and course work.

Prelims – The S5/6 Prelim diet starts on Monday 13th January 2025, with English taking place on Monday 13th in the morning and Spanish taking place on Tuesday 14th in the afternoon.  To support our young people the English department are offering revision support on Monday (6th) after school as part of the normal Supported Study offering and also on Friday 10th from 1-2:30pm.  We would encourage young people to attend and receive support with which ever element they require assistance with.

S1 – Burns With Burns day just around the corner our S1 classes have embarked on their study of Burns and all things Scottish.  This is always the highlight of the year for S1 in English !

S4 Parents’ Night – this event takes place on Thursday 9th January from 4:00-6:30pm and is an excellent opportunity to discuss recent Progress Assessment results and steps forward. If you have not received your booking link please contact the school office.

As ever if you have any questions or comments regarding English or Modern Languages please.

Hola!

Here in Modern Languages we are studying some very exciting topics to help our pupils settle in.

S1s are excited to continue their language-learning journey here at Taylor. In Spanish, we have learned some basic greetings and how to introduce ourselves. We are currently learning the days of the week, the months of the year, and how to say when our birthdays are. In French, we have also started to learn some basic greetings and introductions.

In S2 Spanish, we are currently going through the topic of school. We have been learning to give opinions on school subjects and teachers, talk about what we eat and drink during break, and describe the school day using the time. In French, S2 are currently talking about free-time activities and learning about specific games in France such as ‘la pétanque.’

In Languages for Life and Work Spanish, S3 have been revising various topics such as introducing yourself, talking about your family, where you live, and talking about school subjects. It’s amazing to see how much they remember from S1 and S2!

In National 5 Spanish, we are currently going through the topic of ‘learning’. The pupils have displayed great debating skills by having interesting discussions related to school uniform, school rules, and stress caused by school. Also, they have been preparing for the directed writing and have produced great pieces of written work!

Have a fantastic October break when it comes!

We are delighted to report that we have been invited to enter this prestigious competition for the first time. Once of only two schools in North Lanarkshire taking part the competition is open to S3 pupils and will take place in Hamilton Town House on Thursday 26th October 2023.

The event is organised by Lady Susan Haughey who is the Lord Lieutenant for Lanarkshire, and as such is the King’s representative for Lanarkshire. The competition encourages young people to become more involved in community life, to make them aware that those who attain British citizenship have been in our community for many years and their presence can only serve to enrich our communities.

Working with Mrs Burton and Miss Conlon the team have learned about immigration and British citizenship through our very own Mr Choi, who has been an invaluable support.

We have also been supported by Mary Heron, our mentor from the Lieutenancy.

With just over two weeks to the competition we look are now refining our speeches in preparation for the big day !

Welcome back, we hope everyone had a great October week.  We are delighted to be back in what promises to be a busy time between now and Christmas.

Today we welcomed a student teacher to Modern Languages, Caitlin Stuart joins us from the University of Strathclyde and we look forward to working with her and wish her a long and happy career.

Next week is S5/6 Parents’ Night.  Parents should book appointments via Parents’ Booking online.  It will be lovely to meet with parents in person, the first time since 2020 !   S4 Parents’ Night takes place on Thursday 10th.  More information will follow with the S4 tracking reports which are due out soon.

S1 English will soon be working towards their first individual presentation.  These skills are valuable for our young people as they prepare for the world of work and life beyond school.  This can be a nerve racking experience despite the fact all of our young people are very experienced in presenting in Primary School.  We ask that you work with us to support your young person to develop these skills, please reassure them that  we will support them through their presentation, we all want them to succeed.  Please feel free to contact me via Mr Phairs, PTPS if this is causing undue stress or anxiety.

S2 English classes are currently working on Newspapers learning about the skills and knowledge of the world of journalism.  We are having great fun using puns, alliteration and rhyme to create headlines !  We will explore opinion and bias as well as considering layout and the impact this has on the finished newspaper article.

S4 N4 classes are continuing to develop their skills and knowledge of Reading in order to undertake the N4 Reading assessment which is required to pass the N4 English and Literacy award.  Mrs Burton and Ms Colllins have been delighted with the progress made in writing.  Please support us by ensuring the young people in these classes are in school as much as possible in order to keep the learning moving.

S4 N5 classes are working towards their Progress Assessment at the end of next month.  Classes are working on the Scottish text “Sailmaker” by Alan Spence.  Supported Study will be available every Wednesday after school at 3:45pm-4:45pm.  There will be a practice Scottish text assessment on Friday 11th November.

Higher Classes are moving on to look at Reading for Understanding, Analysis and Evaluation which is the first paper in the exam.  This is the part of the paper our young people generally indicate they find difficult however our results analysis shows they do well with this paper.  Regular reading of a quality newspaper and exposure to good quality documentaries can help with the analysis and dealing with the subject matter of this paper.  There are also great materials available on Scholar and Achieve which young people all have access to.  Supported Study will start this Thursday in the department.

S3 English Classes will be working between the Added Value Unit which teaches young people to evaluate different sources on a subject of their choice.  As well as allowing young people to develop their research and note-making skills this unit is invaluable in teaching how sources are created and how language and layout can be used to achieve different effects.  In addition to this S3 will be embarking on a class novel !  The young people are all very excited to be studying a novel.  Young people will use their novel to develop key skills such as paraphrasing and summarising, inference (working out the implied meaning in text), metalinguistics (the skills to dela with new/unfamiliar vocabulary), visualisation which supports young people to keep notes in a visual way, as well helping young people to find clues in a text to determine what is coming next and finally helping young people to explain what the theme of a text is by examining the events of the text.  Please support us in this by asking your young person what they are reading and asking questions which help them to think about the book.  This all helps to build up the critical thinking skills which are key to success in English.

As ever we thank you for working with us to support your young person as they strive to achieve their best.  We look forward to meeting all of our parents/carers over the course of this year.

Mrs Burton

Faculty Head – Language and Literacy.

We are delighted to have started the new term and look forward to working with students, parents and carers over the next year.  This year promises to be a very special one as the school community celebrates our 40th anniversary.

We welcome four new English teachers to the faculty: Mr Lavelle joins us from Armadale in West Lothian, Miss Murphy has joined us from Braidhurst HS, Miss MacKinnon joins us from Our Lady’s High School, Cumbernauld and Miss Pye has joined us as a Newly Qualified Teacher.  We also welcomed Miss McGuigan to the Team in May, Miss McGuigan will teach French and Spanish and joined us from Coatbridge H.S.  I am delighted to have a full staff team and hope some stability in the faculty will help us to bring about further improvement.

The 2022 exam diet showed excellent results in both English and Spanish.  If however your young person wishes to appeal their award they should speak to their class teacher from last session as a matter of urgency.

Books – over the last few years we have lost a substantial amount of books, particularly after the 2020 lockdown.  Can I ask that you look around and return any books you may have asap.  No questions will be asked, we will just be delighted to have them back.

Students should continue to use the jotters they used last session.  As well as helping us to track progress more easily this also means lest waste and reduces the impact on the planet.

S1 and S2 will experience 4 periods of English per week and one period of Literacy.  S1 should bring a book of their choice to read during this time.  Books can be borrowed from the school library as well as local libraries, they do not need to be purchased.  This will also reduce the impact on the planet.  S2 will be working on core reading skills during this time.  These skills will help students to prepare for the fourth level and beyond into the National Qualifications.

If you have any concerns or questions regarding Languages or Literacy then please contact myself via the appropriate PT Pupil Support for your young person.

I look forward to working with you and your young person.

Mary Jo Burton

Principal Teacher of Language and Literacy.

 

 

National 5 Supported Study will resume on Monday 21st February after the half-term holiday.

Mrs Burton