VIEW FROM THE CLASSROOM
journey from KS3 to GCSE to post-16, with two or three examples of trips, partnerships or careers your students recognise. Display it prominently and provide A5 copies for families. When the journey is clear, the destination feels achievable.
• Brief form tutors for message consistency. Give tutors a short briefing and three key talking points so everyone can explain the “humanity or language first” guidance confidently. Consistency across voices reinforces whole-school belief.
• Engage parents with simple prompts. Send a brief guide explaining how languages build confidence and transferable skills. Include two questions families can use at home: “What can you already say?” and “Where would you use this next?”. Add a list of upcoming clubs, visits or taster events to give families clear next steps.
regularly. We raise the profile of MFL through whole-school events and regular recognition: the European Day of Languages, Francophonie and Spanish-speaking days, visiting Spanish theatre, a film-study strand at the end of Key Stage 3, and our termly MFL breakfast to celebrate progress. We have grown from one MFL club to three, added cultural strands, and developed an MFL library to encourage reading and independent exploration. All of these visible markers help make languages feel familiar and inviting long before any student sits down with an Options form.
• Celebrate every language. French and Spanish are central to our curriculum, but they are not the only languages we value. We actively support students who sit heritage language GCSEs and celebrate each success publicly. Many of those learners then choose a taught language because they want the classroom experience and structured exam preparation that accompany it. Last year, we proudly celebrated GCSEs in Polish, Portuguese, Russian and Turkish, and we saw how that shared pride nudged peers towards languages as well. The message is simple: every language counts, and bilingual identities enrich both learning and our wider school community.
• Teach for the real world. We have found that confidence grows fastest when lessons feel rooted in real life. Our teachers are language specialists; many have lived or studied abroad and bring those perspectives into the classroom. We use authentic materials, attend careers-led events like Pearson’s More than words student event, and show how language opens doors in travel, work and friendships. When learning feels lived rather than simply learned, students are far more likely to keep it on their timetable. This sense of genuine relevance becomes especially important in the lead-up to Options, when students weigh what they enjoy against what they can imagine using.
• Align the options process with our values. Small structural choices can have a significant impact. This year, our Options guidance encouraged students to select either a
March 2026
www.education-today.co.uk 23
humanities subject or a language as their first option. The aim is to support more students to attempt the EBacc, but the wider effect is a strong message that languages sit alongside other high-value academic choices. Reinforcing this consistently (in assemblies, tutor time and parent communication) keeps languages firmly in the frame as a confident, credible option.
Some of your strategies you have built upon over time, do you have any quick tips that schools could embed now ahead of and during GCSE Options discussions?
Here are a few approaches that have worked for us, along with ways you might adapt them to your own setting.
• Put student voices up front. Gather four to six short quotes from GCSE students and display them everywhere: in assemblies, form-time slides, corridor posters and on your MFL stand. Prompts such as “Where I used French/Spanish outside class”, “What I enjoy about learning a language”, or “What surprised me when studying French/Spanish” help students identify with the subject. Real voices reduce anxiety and spark curiosity.
• Show the pathway at a glance. Create a simple, student-friendly visual that maps the
• Celebrate heritage languages publicly. Invite one or two students who have completed a heritage GCSE to share a short story in class or via video. Many will also have chosen French or Spanish; hearing from peers reinforces pride, progress and possibility.
• Make MFL visible in high-traffic spaces. Refresh a corridor wall with photographs from the European Day of Languages, theatre visits, MFL breakfasts and penfriend exchanges. Add short captions in the target language. These daily reminders help normalise languages as part of school life.
• Offer micro-tasters. Provide two small, friendly activities: a quick cognates quiz and a 60-second “say hello + ask one question” challenge, with stickers or postcards as rewards. These low-pressure tasters turn passing interest into that important “I can do this” moment.
For free downloadable resources on languages in life, and for further information on Pearson’s More than words campaign and their new language GCSEs, visit: u
go.pearson.com/MFLGCSE24
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44
