Hi Caroline. Sorry to have only just noticed your comment but I haven't been on this blog for a while or the email address attached to it. I would gladly help your daughter but can't give out my contact details on this site. If you look for me on Facebook and have a Facebook page yourself I can send you contact details via private message. Glad you enjoyed the session - it seemed to go all to quickly. I would have loved to have done a workshop with you to show you how to do this kind of thing in practice. If the opportunity arises perhaps that can still happen!

Hi. Not quite sure if i understand what you mean. Sorry to be so slow responding but have been on a break from teaching.

Thank you Bjorn for your kind words. Sorry it has taken so long to respond but I haven't been active on this blog for a while due to other things going on that are very exciting. Where are you teaching?

Hi Simone! Let me know how it goes - the kids love it. All best

Thanks Willem and hope you get some people travelling to your interesting site as well.

Great! Let me know how you get on with it.

Thanks for the comment Renee and congratulations on taking the blogging plunge! Share links to posts that you know will be of use to other teachers on Modern Language Forums.

Thank you Neil for stopping by to comment. I agree about the need for effective leadership. Without this any change in this direction will be piecemeal. So where in the UK is this happening? We need to get the educational blogging community celebrating those that do this and showcase the results. Happy to do this if anyone wants to point me in a school's direction.

Agree John. To make the point to politicians is hard. They tend to get into power when they are of a certain age. As with all of us SOGs we tend to be more rigid as we get older and slower to respond to things. We see problems through the prism of what worked for us in the past which can be very limiting of you are trying to peek into the future. At least Gove has seen the need to bolster languages by thinking of including it in the Ebac. It's just that the whole concept of an Ebac is a HarkBac (get it!) solution based on the concept that there are a core of worthwhile subjects absolutely vital to the national interest and that you promote those yet hang the rest. Total baloney of course as I'm sure an awful lot of UK income comes from industries such as film, arts, tourism, music. I don't want languages to be in the 'good boys' club to the exclusion of the others. I don't actually believe this is the intention but that will be the effect. To argue differently requires more than words though. Where are the schools proving that an inter-connected curriculum delivers very high performance? Please put me in touch with them!

Hi Ian I agree that ICT is a great cross-curricular tool. What do you feel are the inhibiting factors that stop teachers change the way that they do things? ICT was meant to be a cross-curricular glue in the school I taught at but quickly became a separate subject fighting its own corner against the rest largely because the aspiration to deliver ICT through other subjects was way beyond the knowledge and competencies of the teachers. Has that changed yet? I was staggered to find someone a few months ago who wanted to know how to insert sound into powerpoint.

Thanks Mel! Very encouraging to know that the good ol' US of A are appreciating a fun tune. I'll add your notebook file to this post when you send it.