The Ministry of Education in France is experimenting with implementing CLIL in upper primary and lower secondary schools. The aim is to develop international education in state schools across Île de France. In Creteil and Versailles the focus will be on improving the quality of subject teaching in English as well as developing international and intercultural understanding.
British Council France originally engaged TransformELT in 2018 as teacher training partners. Jason Skeet, Julie Wallis, Megan Walker, Giulia Brazalle, and Aleksandra Zaparucha designed and delivered short introductory face-to-face CPD programmes focused on CLIL to 190 primary & 25 secondary state school teachers in the Paris suburbs in the Creteil (120 teachers in total) and Versailles (70 primary and 25 secondary teachers in total) areas.
In 2021, Alexandra Zaparucha and Alan Mackenzie moved these courses online and we have successfully delivered courses to a further 400 teachers across Creteil, Yvelines and Hautes de Seine.
This CLIL approach to foreign language teaching has been supported by the European Commission and implemented in France since the 90s, but the recent reform agenda in France has recommended a new and more dynamic approach to language teaching, especially English, in order to boost the teaching of and in the target language.
This is the beginning of what we hope will be a long-term engagement in France.
