Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn
Catholic Education Office

Languages Other Than English (LOTE)

Related Policies:

Nil

Purpose:

Learning a ‘Language Other Than English':

• enhances students' skills in cross-cultural communication;
• improves students' knowledge about the cultural aspects of the country of origin and the target language, including customs, history, geography, literature and the arts;
• fosters students' awareness, understanding and appreciation of other cultures as well as their own culture;
• promotes a wider world-view, by demonstrating the interrelatedness of languages and cultures, including how each culture and language is linked with and borrows from other cultures and languages;
• builds students' self-expression and sense of achievement by studying another language, and;
• contributes to students' personal development by cultivating tolerance and respect for other cultures, and stimulating curiosity about the lives of people from diverse cultural backgrounds.

The aims of this policy are to:

• improve student learning of LOTE in primary and secondary Archdiocesan schools;
• develop and achieve targets for student learning outcomes, commensurate with the National Goals for Schooling in the Twenty-First Century;
• assist the students' development in LOTE learning from primary to secondary schooling in a practical and integrated way, and;
• provide guidelines for the resourcing of LOTE programs in Archdiocesan schools.

Policy:

The following policy guidelines are designed to inform the implementation of LOTE programs.

1. 1. The offering of a LOTE is OPTIONAL in all Archdiocesan Primary Schools (ACT and NSW) and in ACT Secondary Schools.
2. The provision of a LOTE is compulsory in Year 7 or Year 8 in NSW Secondary Schools. The NSW Board of Studies has mandated that there be 100 hours of LOTE tuition per year in either Year 7 or Year 8.
3. Schools planning to offer a LOTE need to consider:

• cost effectiveness, optimising the use of Commonwealth and other funds in supporting student learning;
• availability of staff, including possibilities for sharing staff across primary and secondary schools;
• priority of LOTE compared to areas of the curriculum and the amount of time and other resources that can be devoted to LOTE;
• offering LOTE to particular Year levels only, for example to Years 5 and 6. Programs offered to the senior years of primary schools, could be underpinned by ‘Studies of Society and Environment' or similarly related cultural studies undertaken at earlier year levels. Alternatively in light of the perceived ease of learning a LOTE in the early years of schooling, LOTE programs may be focused at Years K to 3. Decisions about targeting LOTE programs to particular year levels are best made at the local level;
• ways for providing continuity in LOTE programs between secondary schools and feeder primary schools.

The principles underpinning system funding for LOTE programs are:

• equity (ensuring that resources are targeted to students in greatest need);
• effectiveness (ensuring resources are used to support the introduction of effective approaches);
• efficiency (ensuring the resources are not consumed in administrative procedures);
• adoption of simple, rational and understandable funding arrangements, and;
• accountability in terms of demonstrating that the funding results in effective learning outcomes.

Definitions:

Nil

Procedures:

Two program options are available to schools wishing to offer Commonwealth Targeted LOTE programs.

1.  OPTION 1: Individual School Program

1.1 In Term 2 each year, schools are invited to complete an application for funding for the following school year (Appendix 1). These applications are called to coincide with the lodgments of staffing requests by schools. This allows for consideration of schools' applications in the same context as general staffing requests and allocations. Advice on the success of LOTE applications can then be made at the same time as overall staffing.

1.2 The completed application should contain information about:

• the specific LOTE proposed to be taught, rationale and related details;
• school information, ie. grades to be taught, numbers of students, hours of tuition;
• strategies for implementation of the proposed LOTE;
• a proposal of how the school proposes to evaluate the new program;
• projected budget for the forthcoming year, and:
• personnel details of teacher (s) involved.

1.3 A LOTE Sub-Committee, made up of representatives from the Education Services Division, Principals and LOTE teachers, will undertake the task of determining the level of funding to be allocated to each applicant. This process must ensure that the total funds committed falls within the Commonwealth's LOTE budget allocation to the Archdiocese.

1.4 Applicants are advised regarding the level of funding allocated to each school at the same time as the CEO advises of overall staffing allocations. It is the responsibility of the school to organise LOTE staff and salaries in cooperation with the Human Resources Division.

2. OPTION 2: Secondary – Primary Schools Cluster-Based Program

Applications based upon a secondary-primary cluster-based approach are encouraged.

2.1 Schools may develop LOTE as a transitional program across Years 4-8.

2.2 Funds available under this option can be used to deliver a cluster-based LOTE for the period 2002-2004. Clusters would usually be based around secondary and feeder primary school boundaries.

2.3 The level of annual funding for each cluster will be based upon the following criteria:

• demonstrated commitment by cluster secondary and primary schools to collaborative planning, staffing and other forms of resources sharing;
• evidence of multi-site programming and desired integration across Years 4-8 in LOTE offerings.

Some supplementary funding will be available under the cluster-based option for coordination across school sites.

Reporting Outcomes

Commonwealth Targeted LOTE program outcomes will be reported in three ways.

Schools will assess and report student's learning outcomes in LOTE (as for any KLA) and report to parents accordingly.

Schools will gather and forward the following information to the CEO. This information needs to be gathered and reported by the school (or school cluster) to the CEO in order to fulfill accountability requirements and to inform system planning about the:

2.1 LOTE studied;

2.2 numbers of students in all LOTE programs;

2.3 numbers of students studying each language by gender;

2.4 numbers of students studying each language by year levels;

2.5 hours of instruction in each year level per week;

2.6 mode of delivery;

2.7 summary of student learning achievement in LOTE;

2.8 factors which contributed to, and those which inhibited, the effectiveness of the program;

2.9 financial accountability statement.

3. The CEO will collate the reports forwarded from schools for inclusion in system-wide accountability and evaluation reports to the Commonwealth (including the annual Australian National Report on Schooling – ANR).

References:

Nil

Forms:

Nil

Last updated on December 2, 2006