Confidence and competence in modern languages at Auchinleck Academy, in East Ayrshire, are expected to go from strength to strength. A modern, custom-built languages room has just been installed, with 29 Apple Mac computers equipped with e-mail and Internet access, video-conferencing facilities and an electronic whiteboard.

The classroom has beern funded by the Scottish Executive’s Partners in Excellence (PIE) languages initiative, involving all secondary schools in East Ayrshire, North Ayrshire and Argyll and Bute. An additional pound;29,000 on top of the original pound;11,000 PIE allocation, made to each of the 28 schools across the three authorities, secured the “classroom of the future” at Auchinleck Academy.

Opening the new classroom, Thomas Farrell, the chairman of East Ayrshire’s education committee , is enthusiastic about the success of Partners in Excellence. “This represents some of the best practice in languages education, not just in Scotland but in the UK,” he says. He also admits to have a new personal interest in learning French.

Auchinleck Academy’s headteacher, Colin MacLean, says he is delighted to have been allocated “such an excellent motivational tool” to promote awareness of languages in the school.

The principal teacher of modern languages, Christine White, is looking forward to fully integrating information and communications technology into departmental planning of teaching and learning. The new facility ensures that full classes, rather than half-size classes, will have regular computer access. It will give pupils a new responsibility for their own learning and will help to develop continuity in teaching methods, she says.

The video-conferencing facilities will enable not only work with other PIE schools and the local primary schools but also regular communication with Auchinleck Academy’s French partner school in Al s in Languedoc-Roussillon.

A third-year class is working on French software and Internet-based exercises. One boy is enjoying exploring new areas of a current topic - leisure and sport - within the broader context of a French website. For one of the girls, being able to identify independently the reasons for her mistakes in verb endings is making her grammar work more effective and enjoyable.

Senior pupils at the school, who addressed teachers and senior educationists in confident French at the launch of the classroom, agree that ready access to ICT gives them a more positive view of learning languages but they still believe that the teacher has a key role in the languages computer classroom. The teacher can give pupils more individual attention and help them to work more effectively on countering weaknesses.

The classroom will also be used for staff development for teachers throughout East Ayrshire and the other PIE authorities. The aim is to offer multiple ICT training for secondary and primary teachers to update and develop their classroom methodology, says Jean Nisbet, East Ayrshire’s adviser for modern languages.

John Mulgrew, the director of education for East Ayrshire and chairman of the modern languages action group, welcomes the development of the PIE initiative. A central resource such as the Auchinleck Academy classroom, he says, reflects the “poll position” of ICT in modern language teaching and learning. “This flows excellently from the recommendations of the action group.”

PIE schools have seen a considerable increase in the uptake of languages at post-16 and the involvement of primary teaching colleagues will ensure a “coherent experience” of language learning for pupils of all ages, Mr Mulgrew says.

There will soon be further enhancement for pupils in PIE schools when Language Zone - a comprehensive guide for PIE - is launched. This will provide teachers and pupils in the 28 schools with a full range of integrated multi-media resources. PIE co-ordinator Mark Pentleton says Language Zone will provide an opportunity for staff to use and share a wide range of topic-based resources and to access information on websites.

The French, German and Spanish cartoon characters who form the basis of the Language Zone site were designed by PIE S6 students who were about to start university language courses last year.

Pupils across the three councils will be able to video-conference and e-mail one another but the Language Zone pupil chat room will only function in the presence of a teacher.

Residential PIE modern language film-making weekends are set to be extended, Mr Pentleton says. It is hoped that pupils from schools in France, Germany and Spain will be involved in week-long film-making events in which Scottish pupils will act as English language advisers and interpreters for their European counterparts.