Four successful applications to the Schools’ Liaison and Outreach Activities Fund

We are delighted to announce that four projects have been successful in the first round of the 2019 Schools’ Liaison and Outreach Activities Fund. Led by schools or by universities in different parts of the country, these projects demonstrate the range of actions and themes in which ASMCF members engage in order to build stronger links between secondary and tertiary education, and to promote the study of French in the UK.

Dearbhla McGrath, from Challney High School for Boys in Luton, has been awarded £425 to support an intervention programme targeting Year 8-9 boys at risk of exclusion. Pupils will be taking part in university-style tutorials where they will conduct their own cross-curricular project based on the French film ‘Au Revoir les Enfants’, in partnership with the University of Oxford’s Waldham College.

Another successful application is the ‘Teaching Environmental and Medical Issues in French’ project led by Daniel Finch-Race (University of Bristol), which aims to bring teachers and pupils into contact with various aspects of modern Francophone cultures through the lens of the environmental and medical humanities. Covering topics such as natural disasters, health and coal politics in settings from Algeria to Rwanda and France, the event includes discovering new angles from which to teach the notoriously tricky health and environment topics at A-Level, as well as time for creating resources.

Academics and teaching staff at the University of Warwick, Aston University and Finham Park School in Coventry have also been awarded £500 to organise an event on sharing best practice and creating additional teaching resources on the topic of the Occupation. This event, organised by David Lees, Briand Sudlow and Danielle Malin, will be an opportunity to share reflections and ideas on what works well when teaching this period at both secondary and tertiary levels, and to discuss areas for improvement and future collaborations across the Midlands.

A project combining a Language Day in French and Spanish for Higher and Advanced Higher pupils with a series of CPD sessions for their teachers, organised by Cristina Johnson (University of Stirling) has also been successful. The event will not only provide pupils with a taster for studying languages at university, but will also offer an opportunity for the French department to better understand the current Scottish curriculum from the perspective of those who are working in the sector.

Resources from each project will be made available on the blog, and we encourage schools and university members to contact the ASMCF or the organisers if they would like additional information on getting involved or replicating events.

More information about the ASMCF’s Schools Liaison & Outreach Activities’ Fund is available here. The next deadline for applications is 31 October 2019.