What we offer at KS3/4/5

KS3

In years 7, 8 and 9, students will have the opportunity to study French or Spanish. They will have two separate hours per week, and students will be encouraged from the beginning to practise the target language in the classroom with their teacher and one another.

There are four main skills in Modern Languages: listening, speaking, reading, writing and a fifth skill we call metalanguage, where students become aware of grammatical concepts and language functions. In every lesson students will be exposed to listening activities that will help them to improve their understanding of sounds and the formation of words so that they can practise the language by themselves. As part of reading comprehension, some small sections of text will be translated into English as well as into French or Spanish.

Culture is also an important part of our teaching of languages, and our students always enjoy finding out about where French or Spanish is spoken around the world, or about the types of food people eat in different countries. Festivals, celebrities, and famous historical people are also introduced to our students to help them have a better understanding of the world.

Students are encouraged to learn interactively for homework and independently through different apps such as ‘Quizlet’, or Linguascope, an online tool with lots of games and audio clips to help with their learning outside the classroom.

Our students’ work is also on colourful displays in the Modern Foreign Languages classrooms.

In Key Stage 4, students have the option to continue with the foreign language that they have studied in years 7/8/9 at Key Stage 3. They can continue with either French or Spanish GCSE in Years 10 and 11. The GCSE is a two-year course and we develop and embed the same skills as in KS3, as well as introducing small chunks of authentic texts in the foreign language, such as a poem or a short literary passage. Students use the same interactive websites for home learning (Quizlet and linguascope) as well as having online accounts to practise GCSE skills at home via a website called Kerboodle. Currently we have two GCSE classes of year 10 and two classes of year 11 Spanish. French GCSE will be also an option for your child if they have studied French at Key Stage 3. We follow the AQA examination board at GCSE.

In Key Stage 5, as part of the International Baccalaureate Career-related Programme (IBCP) in years 12 and 13, we encourage our sixth-form students to be globally minded. A key element of this programme is that all students need to study an element of ‘language development’. This is to widen their perspectives in terms of their understanding of the world. All students taking the IBCP currently have 1 hour a week of either Modern Greek or Japanese in year 12. They are also expected to complete independent study further in year 13 in this foreign language. Our students really enjoy this language development course, as it is more about exploration of a new language and culture and broadens their perspectives further. They compare their culture to a different one and reflect on similarities and differences looking at themselves and others. As they progress, they reflect upon their learning experience.

In Years 12/13, our students are also able to opt for the Ab Initio Spanish course if they wish to study a foreign language in more detail. We usually have small classes for Spanish to enable a more ‘tutor-like’ environment for teaching and learning, which is excellent for our students’ development of speaking Spanish. They develop further language skills in the foreign language, learning different written techniques, reading a variety of texts in different styles, and enhancing their understanding of the Spanish-speaking world through a variety of reading texts and audio clips.

Qualifications at KS4/5

Students are awarded their GCSE by the AQA examination board (Spanish or French) at the end of year 11 after four examinations (listening/speaking/reading/writing) which are worth 25 percent per skill equally.

Sixth form students create a 'language portfolio' file which is assessed as part of their International Baccalaureate for either Japanese or Modern Greek. They need to pass this element, to attain their IBCP qualification. There is no formal examination for this language course.

Ab Initio Spanish students take graded examinations in year 13 as part of their 2 year qualification to attain their sixth form IBCP qualification.

Extra curricular activities in the MFL Department

We have had a partnership with London House (an English as a foreign language school) in Westgate for the past few years. Spanish students who have visited England and have stayed in local host families in Westgate, have also visited our school. The Spanish students have visited Spanish lessons at King Ethelbert School and practised speaking Spanish with our students, who have also benefited from the cultural element of meeting foreign students.

We intend in the future to start trips abroad to France/Spain. At present we are in the process of creating a pen-pal project between our French KS3 classes and a French school in northern France near Reims, hoping that this will develop into an exchange or trip in the future.