Liverpool Archdiocese Secondary Schools’ Partnership Good Practice Case Studies Broughton Hall High School
Overview Broughton Hall is an 11-18 girls’ Catholic comprehensive school. The school was founded by the Sisters of Mercy in 1927 and we currently have 1350 pupils on roll.
Purpose To support and grow students’ foreign language capability, using the CLIL approach. CLIL stands for Content and Language Integrated Learning. It refers to the teaching subjects such as science, history and geography to students through a foreign language. This approach to foreign language teaching has been widely employed across Europe and in the Far East, but has been widely used in the UK. The National Centre for Languages, found evidence of CLIL initiatives (past and present) in 47 schools in England, but currently there are only 3 state secondary schools that have introduced a CLIL section. Although a relatively rare teaching method, CLIL is currently the focus of some research and development. What we did The CLIL Programme in Broughton Hall High school is part of the Spanish Section in Liverpool, a programme funded by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports of Spain. Broughton Hall is the only secondary school in Liverpool that is currently delivering the CLIL Programme alongside four Primary Schools. Our contract with the Ministry financially supports the placement of a Spanish speaking teacher at the school. We deliver Geography and History in Spanish to two groups in Year 7, 8 and 9. Some groups in Years 10, 12 and Upper Sixth also receive some CLIL lessons about issues related to Geography and History to help them prepare for their A’ Level Spanish examinations. During the lessons, pupils are introduced to the content through different types of activities producing a variety of learning outcomes in Spanish, such as completing maps, making posters, writing logos, messages or poems, making learning logs and power points. CLIL students continue to study MFL alongside their peers and have the opportunity in year 9 to take part in a Spanish exchange. Outcome/Impact In 2014 the CLIL cohort was entered for GCSE Spanish; two years early. 94% of students achieved grade A*/A. Currently the cohort is in year 10, and are being prepared for AS Spanish in year 11. One positive knock on effect has been an increase in take up of a second MFL at GCSE, such that A ‘level French, after a gap of many years, will be reintroduced in September 2015. CLIL has raised expectations within school and instilled in the learners academic self-confidence. Our most able are capable of far than we or they ever thought possible, making all the hard work and effort involved in establishing the programme eminently worthwhile.