On 4th May 2021, Ofsted’s subject lead for languages, Michael Wardle HMI, released findings from Ofsted’s language subject inspections.
Between October 2019 and March 2020, Ofsted inspected the quality and curriculum management of language education across 24 outstanding primary schools. They spoke with leaders and teachers about their languages curriculum, visited lessons, looked at children’s work and spoke to pupils.
Despite an impressive variety of languages being delivered across the sample schools, the key findings point to significant variance in the quality of language teaching, often as a result of different models being employed (external provision / class teachers / native speakers) and a lack of understanding of the building blocks of language (phonics, grammar and vocabulary).
To read more about Michael Wardle’s findings, click here.