Advice from ex-teachers out there....

Luckygirl - I have just seen that this thread has been revived (you started it in July 2015 saying that a friend's son was unable to study A-level German at his school) Someone said that the online school Interhigh didn't offer German, but I have just looked at their syllabus and they do now - www.interhigh.co.uk/key-stage-5-curriculum/

If he is still looking for a place, this may be of interest, though the problem has probably been resolved by now.

My grandson was homeschooled to prepare for exams using this website. It was very good.

I work at a Sixth Form College and can confirm that funding cuts have indeed occured, despite the numbers of applicants continuing to rise. Our budget cut was £500,000 and the first obvious impact was that instead of an average of 16 students in my classes this year, it was 22. This had a huge impact on everything from resources, to classroom management to the huge increase in marking time.

With regard to languages, I have seen a steady decline in this subject area over the past ten years. My daughter wanted to take Spanish A Level and there was a total of 3 students in the class in what was quite a large school 6th form. When I walk past language classes at my place of work, there are always less then 10 students per class. Until there is an increase in uptake at GCSE level, provision at A Level will continue to be a problem.

He could always spend some time in Germany perfecting his language skills as he has the basics. He will have the last laugh if he does, you know!

what a shame- perhaps will do so later. Viel Glück dabei.

No German! He is quite a sensitive lad and does not feel he can handle leaving all his friends and going to another school or sixth form college. They are still looking at distance learning options.

So school is about to re-start- what is happening with your friend's son?

So many have asked be to do Skype lessons- but i truly do not want to do so. I use Skype all the time with grand-children and daughters and friends though. Just started to do residential French courses with B&B and own bathroom and kitchen for guests- I just love the personal human contact and show around our beautiful area, both sides of the border. Skype teaching is just not for me. Glad it works for you and your students.

As a tutor, I sometimes offer Skype lessons. I'm wondering if this might be the way forward for small groups at A level. On the home tutoring thread, somebody mentioned Interhigh (which doesn't offer German), but I believe schools will occasionally fund online lessons for school-refusers. Maybe this model would work with subjects such as German at A level. It seems unfair that it's such a postcode lottery.

Ah yes, we were close to a large town, with several 6th Form Colleges close by- so it was much easier, and worked really well.

granjura, I worked in a rural school. The travelling distances involved made sharing unviable. We looked into all sorts of possibilities. In the end, pupils who really wanted to study German (or any subject in a similar position) tended to leave the school and go to the nearest sixth form college. If I'm honest, they had a much better deal than if we'd tried to cobble something together.

I regret not taking German at school. It was a choice between German and Greek and I chose the latter. I've made attempts to learn German in Ad Ed classes but people tended to drop out and the classes closed. I can confirm that I have found Spanish easier. There's little difference in word order from English and plurals are formed with -s. I am able to get by as a tourist and read a menu with reasonable accuracy.

Daughter is HOD of NFL. Teaches French/Spanish. Her school just about offers A level German but it won't last. Suggests Goethe institute. Independent school, the parents could afford it when it becomes necessary. State school pupils could try other ways. If keen enough it should be possible. I'm not a teacher so I don't have any concrete opinions.

daphnedill- there are solutions out there though. When we had 3 schools with unviable numbers for German A'Level, the schools worked together to make up a joint group- and timetabling done in a way that would facilitate that. 1 out of 4 weekly lessons had to be taught after official school hours, with time given back in lieu to the teacher and travel expenses paid- and it worked really well. One student who wanted to study Italian, and there was no possibility of getting a viable group together with local schools, was funded to do A'Level at night school, with private tuition for 1 lesson per week on top. All it needs is a bit of goodwill and imagination- and that especially for a school that gets extra funding for teaching languages!

I think that people regard Spanish as being an easier option. I loved German - it is a very poetic language and very much the language of song.

I'm an ex-German teacher and agree with everything Alea has written. German is dying in UK schools (especially at A level), because it's considered difficult and option groups aren't considered viable. About 15 years ago, I was told that I couldn't run a GCSE group unless I had 20 pupils. A level was out of the question! Ths situation is likely to get even worse with primary languages, because the majority of pupils are studying French or Spanish. German is spoken as a first language in the EU by more people than any other - its decline in UK schools is a disgrace!

I now mark exam papers and the only schools which still seem to be able to run German A level are big sixth form colleges and independent schools, which presumably subsidise small groups.

I also earn my money from private tutoring. Ironically, I have to turn work away. Many of my students are in the same boat (school can't run groups) and it's not right that only students, whose parents can afford to pay tuition fees, should be able to do German at exam level. I also have some young adults who realise that a knowledge of German is going to be an advantage in their career.

But isn't that because many of the people selecting students for uni are themselves intellectual snobs?? You are saying they prefer the trad. subjects . I argue that it is because they are simply maintaining a status quo and not necessarily based on applicants ability/potential which the unis find harder to assess when students have taken less trad. subjects.

and that is great and how it should be.

All I was saying if that the choice of subject tells a lot to UCAS/Unis and propsective employers, about the student- and they very quickly, rightly or wrongly, will still treat a student with, say, as an example : 'maths, physics and chemistry', or 'history, German and English Lit' to 'sociology, media studies and IT' or 'PE, Performing Arts and psychology'- depending on the course chosen or the Post Grad trainee course- even if a good Degree is obtained later. A'Level choices and marks count for a huge deal in selecting candidates for certain jobs, even post grad.

I'm not saying that DS2 didn't get good A-levels in traditional subjects. He did and other universities offered him a place. But the one he chose was offering the courses he wanted to take.

Anno- I was talking about A'Levels, not Degrees. And no, no misplaces puritanism- just so many years as a 6th Form specialist.

The UK is the best country probably at creating brilliant people in all the arts domains- due to the flexibility of the A'Level and Degree system. The Continental Baccalaureate system is very wide, all subjects have to be studied until Uni entrance- and evade so many brilliant performers, designers, etc, sadly, tragically even.

However, most Unis we dealt with offering Law, Psychology, Sociology, Media, etc, told us they preferred taking on students who had not done those subjects at A'Level- and did weigh in 'traditional' subjects as better indicators of potential in many ways.

I do think this is a bit of the old puritanism coming in. All A levels are set to a framework and to be an "A" level they all have certain standards they have to reach. It seems to be that some feel if you have enjoyed it then it cannot be so difficult. I would agree that some A levels may (and degrees) may not be as relevant but I certainly do not agree that they are not all the same standard.

I have been listening very carefully to programmes about education and feel, more and more, that this government will aim to charge for all post 18 education, including FE. I expect they hope the employers will pay ... we shall see.

One of my sons got a first class degree in a non-traditional area which has led to a satisfying and reasonably well-paid career. I was, proud mother, telling my colleages about his success when one of them got very sniffy, comparing his degree to another staff offspring's who had just got a 2.1 in history from Oxford. I was so cross, but later, thinking about it, I reflected on the amount of research my son had done and the dissertation he had written. The study skills he had shown were no less than the egghead youth's who had got the history degree. What's more, in addition to his honours degree subjects, he also achieved a pass degree in Spanish at the same time. And captained the university's hockey team. And I'm still very proud of him as he later took an MBA by distance learning, has a brillilant partner and two lovely children. So let's have no snobbery about vocational and non-traditional subjects at A-level or any other level.

margaretx I am not sure if we agree or not! My point was that 'higher ability' is an intellectually snobby term. People can be extremely clever in many different ways. I was never suggesting A levels were easy but I was challenging the view that a person was of higher abiliy if they studied one subject rather than another. I gave being able to choreograph as an example of high ability. In my mind it is equal to being able to get a history/laguage degree. Just a different set of skills. Society generally values one type of abilty above another. I happen to disagree with that opinion.

I have professional dance qualifications but couldn't possibly choreograph anything more demanding that a class exercise (although I did learn how to record movement on paper). I have passed a bunch of music exams but couldn't compose to save my life. Let's get real about extending education and its qualifications beyond the boundaries that we quite old people remember. The world – and its needs – changes.

I did my German A level externally as my parents did not allow me to stay on at school. I eventually went to Vienna as an au pair, and sent for the German A level syllabus. They sent me the whole book of all the subjects, and the academic couple I lived with were shocked to see that the British A levels were the same level as their first year at university. And we are talking about the University of Vienna here; a highly respected institution.

So yes - they can be very very hard.

My husbands Bil who was a German teacher in a highly academic state grammar school in the home counties for many years found that eventually there were so few pupils wanting to take German that the were talking to him about redunancy. In the end he jumped at the chance in case they changed their minds.
He did quite a few more years as an examiner and moderator. Probably still does.