Why do schools use us to teach MFL during PPA time?

Posted: Sat, Feb 10, 2024 1:28 PM

We love what we do

We love languages at Lingotot North Manchester. We've been teaching for many many many years, in fact you could say that I, Catharine, am quite obsessed with teaching young children languages. I spend the vast majority of my week in nurseries, preschools and schools singing the wheels on the bus, playing games and having a wonderful time.

However,  I have also been that secondary school teacher teaching Year 9s who were not keen on languages. As you probably already know, they can be self-conscious, embarrassed and think it's hard becuase there is exam pressure looming. Coupled with social anxiety and generally being a teenager can often be an unpleasant combination. 

Learning a language is easier when they're little

When it comes to being a language teacher, we know that the best way to avoid this, is to start teaching children when they are much much younger. Year 7 is far too late and  I know that the children who we teach in primary schools leave us in Year 6  confidence, happy and with a love of languages.

They know that it's not as difficult as it might seem. In fact, I regularly joke with the children that I teach that the only people that think languages are difficult are adults because they're not as clever as the children!

It’s fun and we love our lessons
We spend our time delivering engaging fun and interesting lessons because we are super  passionate about French and Spanish.

We bring enthusiasm, passion and specific subject knowledge into these lessons. I’ve been told more than once that we sprinkle fairy dust with us when we come into schools because our lessons are so fun and engaging. 

Do your staff hate teaching languages?
We think that languages are brilliant but we also get that lots of people don't share this enthusiasm. We take away pressure from classroom teachers. We take away the fear of getting something  wrong, pronouncing something incorrectly or not knowing the history of or  culture of a country.  We are obsessed with these countries and we love them!  Don’t ask me anything about the history of Spain because it could probably be my subject on Mastermind! We know of so many schools where teachers or TAs are being asked to teach French or Spanish with, at best, a rusty GCSE, or at worst no subject knowledge at all. 

It’s affordable and good value for money. 
We get that all schools have budgets that are stretched. We get that you’re probably short staffed. We’re a really cost effective solution to these issues as we are paid in a similar way to supply teachers so no pension or holidays to pay for but all of the benefits of a permanent teacher. 

Our lunch and after school clubs are often subsidised by parents who get affordable childcare with language learning thrown in too. We provide absolutely everything your school needs to meet your MFL obligations.

Our recent chats with the lovely people at Ofsted have confirmed that our workbooks are brilliant. All assessments, pupil voice and clear progress is included. You don’t need to worry about planning as we do it all. We even provide end of term data for reports and liase with your MFL lead to make sure your website includes subject specific information.

We’re flexible
You only pay us when we’re in school. Maybe you don’t need PPA provision for the last week of every term or you have a two week timetable so staffing needs vary across the term.

There are loads of different packages available from just after school clubs up to several full days each week. Every school, just like every child is different so let’s see what works best for you and your children.

Sounds like a no brainer doesn’t it?

Get in touch on NorthManchester@Lingotot.com to see how we can help.