We keep on pushing, pushing, pushing for our return. #RejoinEU.

It really starts conversations. I mean, all of the Iberian bits are great, but they’re kind of expected, and a nod beyond Iberia really reflects the world language that we represent and reflect

Now you’ve done it once, it’ll be an annual fixture

We do cheat a bit, and put it up in time to wow visitors at our early October Open Evenings. The students love looking at them and learning about its meaning.

Here is ours: goes up every year; stocks replenished when my colleague goes home. This year it’s my lovely Dad in the frame.

Don’t get too excited. Many RSS statements can’t be shown at the moment anyway

It’ll be for services to potty training boot camps. They’ll be wanting your input to support primary schools.

Pretty much every Saturday in the summer season is like it. Used to take the kids to watch them from the roof of Ikea for a cheap day out

There is no tired like Sadmin tired. 😢 Even when you think their affairs were in order, it’s still relentless. So sorry for your loss

Our top 20% of “started it in yr 7/8” students did not all get top grades, which is just wrong

I’d like to see the top grade bands widened to reflect the intake - there’s no issue with a higher proportion of A* or A grades in eg Further Maths or Classical Greek, because it reflects the self-selecting intake, and MFL should be the same.

I think that would be impossible to implement in a world in which student outcomes are so tied to teacher/school accountability measures, and the stakes so high for a student’s A-level results.

The snag being, of course, is that the devil would be in the detail of how “native speaker” would be defined. Portuguese and Italian native speakers have as much of an advantage, we find, while a UK-born kid with a Spanish dad, can find it as hard as their peers.

5:25 and if like me you’ve been awake for hours it’s time to sign the #parkypetition100K - we need another 70 signatures by 8:20 to hit our daily target petition.parliament.uk/petitions/71...

I’m so looking forward to my 13:55 lesson in south-facing classroom with no air-con and a broken fan. I’m sure that everyone will leave having learnt lots of lovely Spanish. 😩

Sorting out the harsh grading is much needed, but the whole picture must also be looked at. Allowing the same proportion of high achievers to get A*/A as in their other subjects won’t help the lower achievers

Entry grades are tricky: we require a 6, and with an extra weekly session. But even then it’s an uphill struggle, and not advised if they’re at A/B in other subjects and aiming high, uni-wise. There’s also the ethical question of allowing a kid to start a course that they have no chance of passing

… and then our C/D students could be welcomed, too.

It’s more to highlight that the principle is long established that it is possible for there to be more than one type of post-16 qualification in any one subject area. Who knows what the alternative to A-level MFL would be; that’s for debate, but I’d love to be able to offer more than one route.

We don’t have a problem with creating academic and vocational routes (A-level vs BTEC/CTEC) for computer Science vs IT, Business, Music vs Music Performance, PE vs Sport, etc. Why there can’t be the same funded equivalent for Languages is beyond me.

I didn’t (it was French plus one of Latin, De, Esp when I was at school in the 80s). But my daughter did do Latin GCSE, from yr 8, while her yr 7 language was Spanish (which would never have been the case until relatively recently)

Claim to fame!

We went last year - my daughter was very happy to see that finding Caecilius’ house was a doddle, as somebody had helpfully added it to Google maps, to help Cambridge Latin Course pilgrims like her.

I remember doing A-level proses about chabolas in Madrid, in the late 80s.

I did AEB Sp A-level (1990), so lots of essays about aubergine farming in Valencia, and analysis of Basque and Catalan role in the Civil War, and no Lazarillo. See also London Syllabus B, for French.

Before that the hierarchy had been: brainy girls - Latin; budding engineers/middle sets - German; the rest - Spanish. (With French compulsory for all from day 1, bien sûr)

“El español al día”. Only, by 1983, this 1960s textbook most definitely was not. Oh, the donkey carts in that book… I think that my year was the first at my school to allow strong linguists (set 1 French) to start Spanish.

Grading severity at Key Stage 4 in 2024 - FFT Education Datalab A new edition of our occasional series examining how pupils' grades in different subjects at Key Stage 4 differ to those they achieve in GCSE English language and maths

Is there anybody NOT retweeting this until something is done about it? Because it's not exactly hard to fix.

ffteducationdatalab.org.uk/2025/05/grad...

#WinchesterMassCycle ride; our largest yet. 630 cyclists of all ages, shapes and sizes. When the city is safe, they will come. Seeing so many Wintonians peacefully cycling into town highlights the hunger for proper cycling infrastructure in Hampshire
#cyclewinchester #masscycleride #kiddicalmass

Gwen Guilyn (@gwen_guilyn) on Threads Hey @eurostar, story time about my nightmare travel on easter monday and how Eurostar people saved the day. Please, if you can find them, guve them commandations and raises because they are brilliant....

@eurostarjustin.bsky.social

www.threads.com/@gwen_guilyn...