The Prince’s Teaching Institute Summer School
27 – 29 June 2011, Homerton College, Cambridge
‘The best language teachers are a thorn in the side of British insularity and fearfulness,’ said Bernice McCabe, co-director of The Prince’s Teaching Institute (PTI), opening its Summer School in Cambridge today (27 June) which focuses on the teaching of Modern Foreign Languages.
‘The best language teachers represent for our pupils a cultural confidence and outward-looking perspective on the world, a world with which they will connect much more than previous generations.
‘The best language teachers do not follow pre-digested workbooks aiming at functional phrasebook competence. They help our students understand the richness of human communication, develop the desire for self-expression, and immerse themselves in other cultures.’
The PTI grew out of The Prince of Wales’s Education Summer Schools, established in 2002 in partnership with Cambridge University. It provides an inspirational forum for teachers to step away from the classroom and rediscover their love of their subject, to develop subject expertise, and to give them the confidence to introduce their pupils to challenging material.
In response to teacher demand, this year Modern Foreign Languages has been added to the list of subjects covered by the PTI in its wide-ranging programme of courses and seminars for secondary school teachers in the state sector.
In a Foreword to the Summer School brochure, The Prince of Wales has written: ‘This year sees the breaking of new ground with the creation of a programme for teachers of Modern Foreign Languages. Its importance is obvious. When more and more of our problems – social, economic, political and environmental – have a global dimension, the ability to understand other people is at a premium – not just their language, but the culture and principles that inform their thinking.’
‘It is possible,’ said Mrs McCabe, ‘to teach in schools in England for forty years without attending a course in the subject that drew us into teaching in the first place. The Prince of Wales launched his Summer Schools for teachers aiming to do just those things. Significantly, it was organised and led by practising teachers.’
The objective of the Modern Foreign Languages conference – ‘Communication, Character, Culture’ - is to promote more rigorous, ambitious and creative teaching. This year, it will focus on the teaching of French, Spanish and German but there will also be a session on Arabic. The keynote address will be given by Kate Adie OBE.
Mrs McCabe told the delegates that their views on MFL teaching and its place in the curriculum would be presented on the last day of the conference to a panel comprising Liz Francis of the Training and Development Agency, Jon Coles from the Department for Education, and Kathryn Board, Chief Executive of the National Centre for Languages.
All media enquiries or requests for copies of Bernice McCabe’s speech should be directed to Charlotte Cornwell on 0207 591 9610 or 07827 352 993 or by email to charlottec@blj.co.uk