Modern Foreign Languages

Intent

The Modern Foreign Languages curriculum is designed to:

• Deepen students' understanding of language.
• Inspire a love, enjoyment and thirst for language learning.
• Broaden the students' understanding of different cultures.
• Enhance their communication skills.

Introduction

At Key Stage 3, pupils study French in Year 7 for three 50-minute lessons per week. In Year 8, top-set students take on the additional study of Spanish as a second foreign language. They divide their time equally between French and Spanish (3 lessons each over two weeks). All other students have three lessons of French per week. In Year 9, pupils either study 3 lessons of Spanish a week or 3 French lessons a week.

At Key Stage 4, pupils can take French or Spanish at GCSE, depending on previous study.  Pupils have three 50-minute lessons of their GCSE language per week. In addition, pupils can opt to study Spanish and French over two option blocks.

The department has five classrooms, with one room which includes an IT suite specifically for use in Languages lessons.  In addition, all of the classrooms have interactive facilities.

The department offers a variety of extra-curricular experiences, including two popular immersion trips to Normandy (Year 9) and Murcia (Year 9).