Modern Foreign Languages Department

 

Head of Department: Mr E. S. Winter

The department consists of two full-time members of staff who both teach French and German at all levels in the school. Both subjects are offered at GCSE and A Level. A Spanish club is also available after school.

Key Stage 3
All pupils learn French and German for three years up to the end of Year 9, when either or both may be chosen as a GCSE option. Pupils receive regular practice in the four essential skills of listening, reading, speaking and writing, underpinned by thorough instruction in grammar. All four skills are tested at the end of each academic year. In Years 8 and 9, pupils are divided into two sets according to ability for each subject.

GCSE
At GCSE, the syllabus is based on four contexts – Lifestyle, Leisure, Home and environment and Work and education – within which vocabulary supplements that covered at Key Stage 3, and more advanced grammatical structures are introduced. The speaking and writing components each account for 30% of the overall mark and consist of two assessments that may be taken at any time during the course. The listening and reading papers are taken at the end of the course and account for 20% each of the total.