[Karen Wells]

Hi,
Interesting comments from all above. I started helping my son's class CE1 (age 7-8) last year and have stayed on to help the same teacher this year. Like Rouvrou, here in Beziers SW France, English teaching is hit and miss and depends a lot on people like me who give their time for free. We have no set text book to work from and the class teacher gives me free rein so I spend lots of time printing off things and researching lesson plans. In fact I've found that I do more English work than my son's current teacher who is an accredited English primary teacher!

Yes, I also had to have an inspector sit in on my class - she gave me mixed messages - I don't know if anyone else had that experience. On one hand she wanted me to talk exclusively in English with a class of 27 with absolutely no previous knowledge of the language (if I get blank looks I resort to some explication in French - 40 mins a week does'nt allow for much timewasting) with an emphasis on good pronouncation . Yet, she also emphasised the aims of the EU to get everyone communicating so which is more important - a good 'th' sound or role playing going to a shop?

I use the British Council site for some pointers, lots of flashcards and stories. I find at this age the kids love learning songs especially if there are actions too and we do some role play which we can normally do at the front of the class. I keep the written work to a minimum as at this age they are consolidating their mother tongue in reading and writing and I find they concentrate too much on the written and not on what I am saying.
Generally I try to keep things light and energetic as it seems to infect the kids with the same enthusiasm and we never struggle to find volunteers for games (I had lots of Simons for Simon Says last week). I also use many of my son's early books like 'We're going on a bear hunt' and "The tiger who came to tea" for either role play or vocab work.

Thanks for all the tips and happy teaching