Sir, One of the most sensible things this Government ever did was to remove the obligation for all pupils to study a foreign language throughout their secondary education. Only the brightest students are capable of studying languages with a worthwhile outcome at exam.
The classroom situation is the most difficult and unnatural setting for learning languages, but at least when teachers saw each pupil every day for short periods, as they did in the grammar schools of yore, there was the possibility of retention.
ALAN SHELDON
Retired deputy head teacher
Alderley Edge, Cheshire
Sir, Recently my two sons, like thousands of other schoolchildren in Wales, returned to their local bilingual primary school. It was therefore with some surprise that I read that the country’s first bilingual state primary school was opening that day in Battersea, South London (report, Sept 5). Of course, unlike the Wix Primary School, the two languages taught at my sons’ school are Welsh and English, not French and English.
After the commendable efforts of Glyn Wise on Big Brother in demonstrating the vitality of Welsh, it is a shame that The Times is unaware that children are taught daily in one of Europe’s oldest languages.
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PROFESSOR DYLAN JONES-EVANS
Bangor, Gwynedd