Rigolo to help Primary Schools prepare for Dearing changes
Modern Languages to be compulsory at Primary School by 2010
Nelson Thornes welcomes government plans to make learning a foreign language compulsory in Primary Schools.
We continue our commitment to bringing language learning to life through the use of engaging, interactive resources that genuinely connect with pupils.
As Lord Dearing’s interim report found:
“Young people’s familiarity with ICT offers a great opportunity to language teachers. It seems to us that a determined commitment to use this world which is so familiar to young people is key to increasing the engagement of young people with languages.”
Rigolo is ready to assist primary schools in delivering a sound introduction to French using technology to the full to ensure pupils enjoy a spellbinding start to learning languages.
Rigolo’s unparalleled choice of activities, presentations, and animated stories fully supports primary schools in putting the new requirements into practice smoothly and ensuring that pupils are captivated by their first French lessons. The unique native speaking Virtual Teacher tool is ideal for both specialist and non-specialist teachers.
Tim Weiss, Rigolo’s publisher said: “It is very encouraging that the government has formally recognised the importance of learning languages at Primary School, to inspire pupils to go on to want to learn them at secondary level. The Rigolo resources have been designed to support teachers in achieving this aim.”
“I like the Virtual Teacher on here, it’s really good. I think it’s good support for the non-specialist teacher, because lots of schools don’t have specialist teachers. I like the idea of having a continuous story going through – I think that really appeals to the children.I think it’s a really good programme, it’s got a bit of everything”.
Miss Lindsay Gooch, The Abbey School, Tewkesbury.
“As my time is so limited, for me to make lots of games would be difficult. Whereas it’s all there, learning the song and everything, that’s fantastic. I’m quite impressed with it. You’re normally chasing around and if the help is there, that’s fantastic because you don’t have to go anywhere else; you know it’s there and you can access it quickly.
It’s such a rich source of information and activities for the children in so many different ways on one CD; you can send a small group out to work on one task, while the others are working on worksheets. So there are lots of possibilities there”.
Miss Starr, St. Chads’ School, Lancashire.
“They love it and it gives them a lovely change from just seeing you there, trying to be funny every week.’ It’s quite nice to have something quite different, so that you can say ‘this week you don’t have to listen to me, you can listen to this.’
That is the huge, huge value of these CD-ROMs. I know that a lot of the teachers don’t feel very confident when it comes to actually speaking themselves, and I think from that point of view it’s good”.
Julia Harle, Christian Malford School, Wiltshire.
It illustrates and it’s interactive and I think it’s a way of bringing children in. I know from the High School that just the little bit I do in here gives them a head start up there. This would give them a bigger start, before going onto High School.
One word I would use is extensive, for both children and teachers.
And the fact that it cuts down on time and on paperwork. It’s the searching for resources that’s the main time-saver. Also you can highlight where you are up to, so where your lesson plan is, and I think it would meet criteria for OFSTED.’
Wendy Dixon, Banks Methodist School, Lancashire.