German teaching standards at Loreto praised in Dept of Education report

The quality of German teaching, learning and assessment at Loreto College in Mullingar is “excellent”, with “exemplary” support for the subject, an assessment by the Department of Education and Skills has found.

The single subject evaluation was carried out on April 30 of last year, and the report was published on September 7.
In its summary of main findings, the report stated that a wide variety of effective teaching methodologies ensured maximum student engagement and learning in all lessons; student-teacher rapport was most positive and that highly effective practices in the area of leading learning were evident.
As a result, the report noted, the uptake for the subject had increased significantly.
“Teacher commitment to availing of a wide range of continuing professional development (CPD) opportunities is excellent and the benefits are evident in the excellent classroom practice observed,” it continued, adding that the quality of individual lesson and subject department planning was excellent and was supported through very effective school self-evaluation processes.
The inspector was impressed with the teachers' use of the language, and observed that the well-established student routines contributed to successful learning.
“There are very good curricular activities to support the teaching and learning of German. These include a German language exchange programme, German debating club and international food tasting activities,” the report said, adding that the German department had put significant into arranging activities to promote German language learning outside the classroom.