Interview with Harriet Sleath, Teacher of Modern Foreign Languages at Teign School

“Regular feedback and knowing that I will have a moment where my Mentor and I are going to sit down, with a cup of tea and reflect and have that time together scheduled into my week, has been the most valuable part for me as an Early Career Teacher.”

Sometimes life turns full circle.
Harriet Sleath is in her first year of teaching French and Spanish at Teign School (part of Education South West); which happily happens to be her own former secondary school.
This Devon girl got the bug for Languages when she was at school and studied Spanish at GCSE and A Level and French to GCSE, before going overseas to put her language learning into working practice teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) in Spain for a year, and then further afield to Mexico for eight years.
 
As well as teaching Languages, Harriet was recruited by her former Teacher of Music at Teign to teach Music to Key Stage 3 as she plays the piano. This is providing further additional joy in Harriet’s timetable with some cross-curricular Languages music-making. Remember, the traditional French nursery rhyme, "Frère Jacques…" ?
 
Harriet trained last year with SWIFT Teacher Training, of which ESW is a partner, as Kingsbridge Teaching School Hub (based at the Community College) is one half of SWIFT.

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1. What did you most enjoy on your teacher training course?
There are two things in particular that I enjoyed on the teacher training course with SWIFT.
Firstly, I enjoyed seeing the progression of students that I got to meet over the course of my two different placements.
 
I felt very grateful to be in two different schools and for the time to get to know the students and especially seeing them make that progress with me. I think I had thought as a trainee teacher I might be a bit like a fly on the wall and not get to know the students very well. But having that opportunity to teach them something and witness that light bulb moment when they fully understand, or even when they ask me an insightful question were some of the most enjoyable moments, because they offered me an opportunity to explore what the students themselves would like to learn. I think, discovering what was interesting for them definitely shaped me as a teacher.
 
The second thing was being given the space to find my own personality as a teacher.
I feel very lucky as both my Mentors were fantastic and allowed me to take the time to realise what I want to be as a teacher, what I want my teaching to look like, and what I want to bring to my classroom environment. For me, this was very important.
 
2. What was the greatest learning curve and how did you overcome it?
My greatest learning curve was adaptive teaching in learning how to manage and meet the needs of a wide range of learners in one class.

During my training year, a lot of the focus was on adapting to SEND students, and those with significant barriers to learning, and quite rightly so.
 
I am still finding that balance in adapting to students’ needs, whilst also continuing to inspire and interest other students who have less barriers to learning, or who are simply more passionate about the subject. Finding that balance was one of the biggest learning curves; but being able to again work with my Mentors and have that time to learn and try out different things in the classroom was important to help me overcome that barrier as part of my learning curve.
 
3. What have you found to be particularly rewarding in your first term?
Firstly, it has been rewarding to build relationships and trust with students.
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I anticipated it would be difficult coming in as a brand-new teacher and in an environment where students know that I was a trainee teacher. However, I wanted the students to be able to get to know me; hence, it was particularly rewarding in the first term that students who already felt comfortable in coming to talk to me, and who trusted me as their Teacher of Spanish and asked me questions about the Spanish culture.
 
Secondly it has been rewarding to take part in some of the school’s extracurricular activities and feeling part of a collaborative student and staff community. Seeing the students outside of my classroom doing something that they enjoy, and showing them my other passions, pushing myself out of my comfort zone has been some of the most rewarding moments of the first term.
 
4. How is the Early Career Teacher Programme helping you in your first year of induction?
It is helping me a lot!
My school Mentor is fantastic, and their guidance has been invaluable. Being able to refine some elements like my routines: for example, countdowns and waiting to have everybody's attention, has been very helpful.

Regular feedback and knowing that I will have a moment where my Mentor and I are going to sit down, with a cup of tea and reflect and have that time together scheduled into my week, has been the most valuable part for me as an Early Career Teacher.
 
5. What are your hopes for the teaching of Languages in our schools now and in the future?
This is a big question, and I could talk about this for a LONG time!

Certainly, I hope to see language learning viewed not only as an academic subject in learning French and Spanish; but as a key to understanding other cultures and how we all connect on a global scale. I hope that students continue to be open minded, so that they come into the class knowing they are going to learn some Spanish and French. But that's not all.
 
I hope that we can continue to guide young people to move past the whole “everybody speaks English” mentality - because that is still an issue. By making lessons engaging, relevant and inclusive, I want to inspire students, particularly in Devon and in the South West to know that Languages will open doors for them throughout their lives. Not only as they try to figure out what they want to do when they are 18 and to show them how it can contribute to their careers in the future.
 
Some of my most successful moments in lessons are when students might ask a question, like where is Barcelona? Or do they speak Spanish in Barcelona? But I like these inquisitive questions, and I like that students want to find out more and I am taking the time to answer these questions.  All the students in the classroom are listening because they are genuinely interested.
 
It might be obvious to me where and why people speak Spanish, but even more intriguing is where and why French is spoken. I have been redoing the display boards with my tutor group and am planning to get a big map of the world to show where people speak French and Spanish, because a lot of the time we simply do not know and I would like that information to be more readily available to my students.

So, my hopes for the future of teaching Languages are that it is much more than teaching Spanish in the classroom, it is about teaching the students about where we speak languages, and why we speak different languages, which I am very much looking forward to bringing into the curriculum more and more.

Interview by Jude Baylis, SWIFT Executive Assistant