The Nativity reborn:

Joyeux Noël à tout le monde!

 

by Andy Sharman of The Independant

Published on Thursday the 13th of December 2007

 

The number of pupils taking French at GCSE has slumped to an all-time low. Could a French Nativity play change attitudes? Absolument, says Andy Sharman Published: 13 December 2007

The scene couldn't be more English: a small, pretty Victorian school house set among acres of sprawling green fields in Hampshire. In this quintessentially rural village of Hurstbourne Tarrant, population 786, the local school is putting on a traditional Christmas Nativity. Only this year, thanks to one inspirational teacher, they're doing it in French.

This is the front line in the fight to get English children speaking foreign languages again. Since 2003, when the Government made it possible for pupils to opt out of languages at 14, the number taking French and German GCSE has slumped to its lowest in more than a decade. French entries have more have more than halved since 2001.

Language teaching is not compulsory in primary schools, but in 2002 the government set the target of having every seven-year old learning a language by 2010 – the so-called primary language entitlement. The interim report by Lord Dearing, published a year ago, emphasised that languages should be embedded in the primary curriculum: "the earlier the better," it said.

Watching the performance at Hurstbourne Tarrant Church of England Primary, I think I've found what Lord Dearing was looking for. Tiny four and five-year-olds trot in from the wings, herded by the motherly teachers. They sing "étoile de Noël" as the parents coo. Why is it that children sound so sweet when voicing the French language?

Children from Years One, Two, Three and Four follow with two songs of their own: Regarde le petit bébé and Petit roi. Then comes the main event – the Nativity performed by Years Five and Six. It's acted out in French, but narrated in English by a chorus of children, to ensure the children understand what they are saying.

I spoke to Joseph and Mary – or "Marie" – before the play and they couldn't wait to show off their skills. "It's really fun; I really enjoy it," says Lucy Bushell, 11. "It's a good language because you learn French at secondary school and we've got a bit of a head start."

Joseph Levy, 10, while admitting to being "a mere fraction of a per cent nervous," also sees the benefits of French. "I think French is a really good language because if you go to France then you can talk to the locals and you can tell them what your name is, where you live, and you can go to the shops," he says.

To ease his nerves, I tell him that, regardless of how the play goes, at least he'll look the part. "My mum actually made the robe and this is a proper Arabian head-dress," he says, proudly. "We found it in the attic while my dad was rooting about." He nods to Lucy: "I think she actually looks like the real Mary."

"Do I?" says Lucy, a little unsure, adding: "I think we'll do really well."

And they do. They handle the grammar and vocabulary with relative ease, needing only a few prompts from their French teacher, Nathalie Danon-Kerr.

"They seemed a little nervous, which is understandable," she says. "But they knew their lines so well and said them with a beautiful French accent. I'm so proud of them!"

Danon-Kerr is proprietor of Bleu Blanc Rouge, which employs a handful of staff to teach French at schools in Hampshire, Berkshire, South Oxfordshire and Wiltshire. She has, for the past four years, run a private French club at Hurstbourne Tarrant. But this September, the incoming head teacher Joyce Johnson decided to use part of the school budget to make Danon-Kerr's tutoring available to the whole school.

"The school thought it was important to set aside some money for French across the curriculum. We wanted to be in the forefront of doing that," says Johnson. "We're very lucky to have Nathalie do it for us because she inspires the children."

Many other primary schools have also begun to include languages in the curriculum. In 2001, a report found that only 25 per cent of primary schools were teaching languages. Now, that figure is up to 70 per cent, with the vast majority of schools offering French. Still, the figures don't describe exactly what kind of teaching is being done.

"The country has decided to have French in primary schools, but many of them don't follow a structured programme," says Danon-Kerr. "They do a bit of colours and a bit of animals, a bit of this and a bit of that."

She uses a method called La Jolie Ronde, which offers a structured programme for teaching languages to three-to -11 year olds involving activities, songs and "fun grammar".

"We try to have a structured programme from start to finish, so when they go to secondary school they have a solid grounding. The children get to know how the language really works," says Danon-Kerr.

She's clearly worked wonders in preparing the children for the French Nativity in the space of a few weeks. And the audience laps it up. Around 50 parents have turned up on a weekday afternoon. David McKenzie-Robinson, is one of them and he knows just how much it means to his five-year old, Alexander, to be singing in French on stage.

"The other night he was actually singing the words at home in the bath so yeah, he really enjoys it, he's having great fun," he says.

"If you bring it on this early it encourages them when they get to secondary school because, I think with so many children, if they haven't done it in primary school, they're not far enough forward and so they take the easy option and opt out."

But this is not the only thing discouraging secondary school students. Language subjects are considered by teachers and students to be up to a grade more difficult than some other GCSE subjects. Pupils are under pressure to get top grades; teachers are under pressure to hit targets. This means that softer subjects are often given precedence in an increasingly crowded secondary school curriculum.

Given these difficulties, it's easy to see why the government's focus has shifted to primary schools. But the problem is that many teachers lack the skills and resources to teach languages at primary school level – and often have to rely on a tonic of CD-Roms and DVDs.

"With the government launching such an ambitious programme for primary languages, it takes time to build the infrastructure," says Linda Parker, director of the Association for Language Learning, the national body representing language teachers. "Clearly, there's more that needs to be done, and it's not going to happen overnight."

The government is training language teachers specifically for primary level. The project allows trainee teachers to spend time abroad in the country of their chosen language specialism. Some 6,000 trainees will have passed through the training system by the end of the decade, according to the Training Development Agency for Schools.

It is hoped that this will enable more schools to follow the example set by Danon-Kerr, Hurstbourne Tarrant Primary and its Christmas Nativity. "With more than two-thirds of English primary schools implementing the primary languages entitlement, it is no surprise that activities like this are becoming increasingly popular," says Isabella Moore, Chief Executive of CILT, the National Centre for Languages.

"Young learners enjoy the opportunity to show off their language skills and performing in front of an audience adds an extra dimension of fun to language learning, as evidenced by recent primary winners of the European Award for Languages." The winners were a group of schools in Northumberland who teach their children languages by telling them familiar stories in French, German, Italian and Spanish.

But these schools are still the exception. To have weekly French lessons as part of the curriculum is a considerable achievement for a small village school like Hurstbourne Tarrant. At another school, North Waltham Primary, also in Hampshire, it has been up to the friends of the school organisation to raise funds to pay for the Bleu Blanc Rouge treatment.

It's simply too soon to judge the effects of the Government initiatives, or to spot any correlation between what's happening at GCSE and what's going on in primary schools.

Back at Hurstbourne Tarrant head teacher, Joyce Johnson, pleased with this year's performance, is looking ahead to next year: "The Nativity has been really good this year because it's given the children a focus. The performance is an outcome of their learning so they're working towards something and it's more motivating for them. So hopefully it'll be an even bigger musical next year!"

Tuesday December 18, 2007
The Guardian

Zut alors! The baby is French

"Bienvenue, petit bebe." (Welcome little baby.) "Regardez l'etoile dans le ciel." (Look at the star in the sky.) "C'est ici." (We are here.) Year 6 at Aston All Saints primary in Sheffield are rehearsing their lines for today's school nativity play. And, just as in roughly 1,200 other primaries in the UK, this year those lines are in French.

That's almost double the number of primary French nativities there were last year, says La Jolie Ronde - a French language course for three- to 11-year-olds.

Doubtless the growth has something to do with the announcement this year that from 2010 all schools must teach a modern foreign language to all seven-year-olds.

But it's also down to the message spreading that parents and teachers are doubly impressed and "almost overcome" by the cuteness of "un petit Joseph" and "une petite Marie".

At All Saints Featherstone primary near Pontefract in West Yorkshire, this year Liam and Aidan, both seven, will be kitted out in berets, stripey jumpers and a necklace of onions to play the narrators. They'll be gesticulating a lot, too.

"It's very Francais," says their class teacher and the play's producer, Moira Rennoldson. "The parents are delighted. It's a working-class area here and many parents don't know French."

At Hurstbourne Tarrant primary in Hampshire, the nativity a fortnight ago was more about the pronunciation.

"I saw a lot of smiles on parents' faces," says French teacher Nathalie Danon-Kerr. "The children were trying really hard to have a French accent and to emphasise the correct pronunciation of 'Joseph' and 'Marie'.

"My favourite part was when the reception class and year 1 sang Etoiles de Noel (Christmas stars). They were really shouting it out and demonstrating how the stars sparkled with their hands."

But are the children just as delighted to be performing in French? Don't they have more stage fright than usual?

It seems not. Cassie Drayton, 10, who is playing the angel in Aston All Saints' performance, says: "We get to do something in French for a change, so it's more interesting." Her twin sister, Lucy, who is a narrator, says: "I like doing the nativity play in French because our parents and other children get to learn some French, too."

"There's no embarrassment about performing in French, says Lucy and Cassie's teacher and the play's producer, Jo Howard. "I tell them that they need to try to have a good French accent otherwise French children will think they sound funny. You need to tell this to them young. If they try to do a good accent at secondary school, though, they might be thought of as a 'swot'."