PDC in MFL are proposing new assessment framework for KS3&4

The Professional Development Consortium run by the Universities of Oxford and Reading have just published draft versions of their alternative assessment system for MFL at KS3&4. It looks very interesting offering 5 Levels across KS3 and 4 with 2 sub levels at each level thus providing an all through system from beginners to top grades at GCSE (like the ASSET languages ladder - which goes all the way up to Mastery, i.e. uni level).
The two receptive skills are grouped together as their assessment is very similar and the same is true for the two productive skills. The success criteria are made clear and different sources of evidence are taken into account.
The question is: will this be taken on by the government or schools to replace the existing system or would this add an extra layer of assessment, i.e. work?

So, go and check it out on the PDC in MFL blog here and leave a comment!

FREE: Excellent tools for Interactive Whiteboards (or even just whiteboards!)

TRIPTICO offers this free set of tools that can be used with IWB but many of them are equally useful as long as you have a projector to share with your class what you can see on your laptop/PC!

Download the software to access these excellent apps from here: http://www.triptico.co.uk/
Some highlights: spinning wheel to select topic randomly, random student selector, scoreboard for up to four teams, sentence order challenge and many more!

Check it out now - it's well worth it!

OFSTED: subject specific guidance for inspectors

I've just been forwarded this link to an interesting page on the OFSTED site:
Generic grade descriptors and supplementary subject-specific guidance for inspectors on making judgements during subject survey visits to schools

Enjoy!