What to do on Open Evening?

 Every so often on Twitter someone puts out a cry for help, "What ideas do you have for languages on Open Evening?" And fortunately there are many kind and generous teachers who are glad to share their ideas. But I think basically it comes down to this: Showcase what you do in your school.

That's not really a helpful answer, but it is the start of a discussion and bouncing ideas around. Which is the situation I am in now. Bouncing back from two disrupted years, and still with wise restrictions on hands-on activities, what does, "Showcase what you do in your school" mean?

In previous years, we have based our room around the creative outcomes our pupils produce in their language lessons. So we could show the pupils the Stamper Trails our pupils had made in French for Gressenhall Farm and Workhouse museum, and explain to parents how this pulled together all the work in Year 7 into a creative project with a tangible outcome. And we could display the artwork from the French Art Exhibition held at Dereham Windmill, with the descriptions of the pictures and artist biography written in French. And we could show the trophies for the Are You Smarter Than vocabulary competition and the Francovision Song Contest. And it made a great showcase. But this year, our pupils haven't had all those opportunities.

The Year 7 French Café from 2007

For the last two years we did run a French café where the Year 9 International Leaders showed off their French as waiters, helping the visitors order from a menu and a script. We justified this because a French café with Year 7s as waiters was on of the projects we used to run.

This year it was suggested that we continue to do something similar with pre-wrapped food items. But I think this is missing the point. We don't want to be "that school where they gave you free food." We want to be showcasing what French is like here and what the school is like. The French café, interacting with the Year 9 waiters did just that. It allowed visitors to engage with our pupils, who are by far our greatest strength. But this year it seems unwise.

So I think I am going to go with "Français: ma leçon préférée". Which is nice and ambiguous. Does it mean French is my favourite lesson? Or that this is my favourite French lesson? Because it will feature our Year 9 International Leaders talking through some of their favourite lessons with the Year 6 pupils.

I have a week to put this to the International Leaders and see what their favourite lessons really are. But I am thinking of having this top 4 on show:

Francophoniques: The key words that exemplify the French sound-spelling link. With pictures and actions. Ciseaux, Poisson, Sorcière are genuine favourites. And then maybe demonstrating how this enables them to have a go at saying various words like oiseaux. (Click here for more on how we borrowed this phonics idea from Dr Rachel Hawkes.)

Confiture: Memorising food vocabulary using dual coding and the keyword technique. Confiture/Comfy Chair, Guimauve/Game Over, Fromage/From Mars. (Click here to see how this evolves into story telling and makes the words unforgettable.)

The Art Exhibition: I know it's more than one lesson, but this is one project the International Leaders did get the chance to do before lockdown, so they will be able to talk about their own work.

And then on the whiteboard screen, some activities from Gimkit or Blooket because we can't ignore the fact that this is the year group who have taken to learning French online and there are pupils whose excitement will be contagious.

So that's the plan. Real lessons, pupils' actual work, interaction with our pupils and a love of French. Wish me luck!