Exciting News! Monmouth Comprehensive School in the UK is thrilled to be a satisfied customer of Sanako Connect software, enhancing their language teaching and learning with modern language tech!
Monmouth Comprehensive School (MCS) in South Wales have been delighted with their purchase of licenses for Sanako Connect Online, promoting independence and confidence amongst students across a range of skills. Students study French, German and Spanish GCSE and A-Level. The International Languages Faculty is also a Learning Network School for the EAS (Education Achievement Service), which supports and promotes language learning with other schools in the area, through the Welsh Government Global Futures Strategy.
In this article we share the key insights from our recent interview with the MCS MFL faculty leader.
Modern languages tech increases students motivation and engagement
Jill Snook, Faculty Leader for International Languages, Monmouth Comprehensive School, shares her experiences with Sanako:
“At Monmouth, students are passionate about International Languages, and we are proud to offer them a wide range of opportunities and modern learning tools. As the new Welsh Curriculum approaches in 2022, we are working hard to develop our students into ambitious learners and confident individuals across a range of language skills.”
“The past 18 months have been transformative in terms of how we deliver our courses to students. On paper, delivering a language course at a distance seems like a tall order, but with Sanako Connect, we have been able to continue to provide our students with a wide range of opportunities to access authentic language resources to aid their development. The remote training we received was invaluable for the International Languages team, and allowed us to really stretch ourselves with what we could offer students virtually. The team at Sanako has been incredible, and are always able to provide answers to our questions, as well as keeping us informed of the latest innovations in the software.”
How Sanako Connect helps the faculty and students
Jill Snook continues: “While we initially used Sanako Connect as a remote extension of the Sanako Study 700 system installed on our school laptops, the additional training allowed us to explore beyond the recording functions. In particular, we have been able to offer entire remote lessons for Key Stage 5 that use a variety of media to inform students on a topic, elicit responses from them in writing and orally, before providing them with exam style gap fill, multiple choice or translation questions.”
“Within the Connect platform, teachers don’t only get the opportunity to create dedicated exercises, but can monitor, assess and interact with their students. Giving live feedback through Sanako Connect is also a seamless process, keeping everything in one place. During the recent 2021 period of lockdown in the UK, students of A-Level Spanish really enjoyed exploring topics such as Teletrabajo and Quinceañeras using authentic materials. The flow of tasks could be adapted so that students progressed at a manageable pace; the instant feedback on aspects such as the gap fills was viewed as very helpful to their learning journey.”
“Thanks to these innovations at Sanako, our courses were able to continue offering students the challenge, support and monitoring that they have come to expect, alongside maintaining their confidence in their language skills. With our Sanako Connect licenses renewed for another year, we are looking forward to bringing more varied Sanako Connect exercises down into Key Stage 4, who, up until now, have mainly used it to practice role play and conversation tasks. We remain delighted in using Sanako’s software as the positive impact on progress and student confidence is clear.”
With Sanako Connect, Monmouth Comprehensive School has access to a world of interactive speaking and listening activities for their students and teachers. Interested to learn more? Click here or the banner below to discover how Sanako Connect can elevate your school’s language programs too!
