Our students are....

....Language Learners

Our objective:

Shrewsbury International School aims to equip our students with excellent language skills and an understanding of the value and currency of language.

Our students:

1. 1.have plentiful opportunities to:
   

2. • develop their first language skills (wherever possible)
   

3. • learn and speak in English
   

4. • develop proficiency in other modern foreign languages;
   

2. 2.learn and converse in English every day;
   

3. 3.apply - and enjoy applying - their language skills;
   

4. 4.appreciate the value of and fully understand the school’s language policies;
   

5. 5.are encouraged and supported in the development of their language skills;
   

6. 6.are fully supported when they need extra help.
   

Our teachers:

1. 1.see themselves as language teachers as well as subject or classroom specialists;
   

2. 2.are highly conscious of the personal and cultural values of first and subsequent languages;
   

3. 3.build development of language learning into their planning and preparation;
   

4. 4.show awareness of the language needs of students in each lesson;
   

5. 5.support the language policies of the school at all times.
   

Our parents:

1. 1.understand the priority given to language learning at school;
   

2. 2.understand the time that it takes to acquire a language;
   

3. 3.are aware of the ways in which they can support their children’s language learning at home during term-time and holidays;
   

4. 4.reinforce the value and currency of language learning;
   

5. 5.seek out opportunities to support their children’s language through home-learning, holiday planning and reading in foreign languages;
   

6. 6.support their children’s language learning through an interest in world current affairs and an awareness of its presentation in the global media.
   

Our measurements

1. 1.Internal assessments of language learning will be undertaken, analysed and presented to parents via reports;
   

2. 2.The Language Committee will be established by The Principal and report to The Board of Governors annually on language learning;
   

3. 3.The Language Committee will devise annual targets for language learning in the school;
   

4. 4.The Performance Management System for Teachers will focus on the degree to which teachers see themselves as language teachers and will build into the programme annual targets for improvement as language teachers.