* I wonder if the heads bemoaning the fall in pupils taking modern languages at GCSE include any from schools which, a couple of years ago, decided to flaunt the law by making languages at key stage 4 optional - a year or more in advance of any government pronouncements to this effect.
As I remarked at the time as an outgoing head of languages in response to an Association for Language Learning survey, this pre-emptive move seriously devalued the subject within schools, sending the mesage to pupils that language learning was not important.
Alan Marshall
16 Mayfield Close
Ferndown, Dorset
