French - GCSE - Year 10

How and when will I study French?

French is taught for five hours per fortnight throughout the two-year GCSE course, which builds on language skills developed in Key Stage 3. For this reason, prior study of French is a prerequisite for success on this course, as you learn to develop the themes outlined below. All resources are electronic and are a carefully curated combination of educational and authentic sources, as well as bespoke content. Students will need to participate actively in class to improve all four language skills and - crucially - be prepared to spend time regularly consolidating new vocabulary, structures and phrases between lessons, which will be uploaded to Google Classroom. If you don't have it already, we strongly encourage downloading Google Classroom on mobile phones or other devices you may have at home.

The Gatwick School also subscribes to Linguascope for great, interactive activities. For access, click on the fish icon above. Login details for students are available from MFL staff.

Along with English, Maths, Science, Geography or History, a language is essential to achieving English Baccalaureate status. Therefore, GCSE French is a qualification very much worth achieving.

What will I study?

Theme 1: People

Identity & Relationships with others

Qui est-ce ? (Guess who) lends itself to physical descriptions, a launchpad into revising KS3 grammar (avoir, être, and adjectives), with a link to describing a photo, 10 easy marks at Foundation Writing and a key component of GCSE Speaking at both tiers.
Moi moche et méchant. We consider identity in various terms such as ethnicity, gender, nationality, sexuality, and religion.
Bigflo et Oli. Celebrity culture is a thread all through our GCSE course and finding out about these rapping brothers allows us to discuss childhood and family.
Nouvelle-Calédonie. French is spoken in many parts of the world. We use authentic resources from this French territory 10 000 miles from Metropolitan France to think about identity.
Black History Month. We look at the lives of Joséphine Baker, Félix Éboué and Solitude to recognise the lives and legacies of three significant individuals honoured by the French Republic for their contribution to French history, whilst looking at the difference between the imperfect and perfect tenses.

🇫🇷 You will reach this waypoint by October.

Stromae. Listening to the music of a Belgian hip-hop artist and songwriter and reading about his life also allows us to look at reflexive verbs and to discuss relationships.
L'amour, l'amour. A much loved French advert provokes thought on future relationships, whilst also focussing on describing a picture.
Un meilleur ami. What is a best friend? why do we say a dog is man's best friend?

🇫🇷 You will reach this waypoint by December.

Theme 1: Lifestyle

Healthy Living & Lifestyle

- Tu préfères abandonner ... Which foods could you give up? Which could you not? Why?
- Quelle sauce est la moins saine : Le ketchup ou la mayonnaise ? Which sauce contains more fat? Which contains more sugar? We learn lots of opinion phrases and how to justify our opinion.
- Fêter Noël. A vox pop on French Christmas traditions and a Christmas TV advert with a moral on inclusivity.
- Une visite à un restaurant. Positives and negatives!
- Une alimentation équilibrée. What would you do in different scenarios? A magazine quiz helps us examin our relationship with food.
- Rester en forme. A look at previous lifestyle habits, current choices and future aspirations.
- La Chandeleur. Let's make a pancake, order it in French and eat it before Mardi Gras!

🇫🇷 You will reach this waypoint by February.

- Problèmes, conséquences et solutions. Young French people share current woes and consequences, but find solutions.
- La Maison des Ados. A look at the relationship between physical health and mental health and the importance of knowing where to find help.

🇫🇷 You will reach this waypoint by April.

Theme 1: Education & Work

Education & Work

Une visite virtuelle d'un collège. A virtual tour of a French secondary school helps us learn to describe TGS and give opinions on our school building.
Une rentrée sans portable. What does French law say about mobile phones in school? How does Back to School work in France?
Ma journée mixte. What does our schoolday at TGS look like and what do we think about it?
L'uniforme scolaire dans le monde francophone. You know students don't wear a uniform in France, but what about in the rest of the French-speaking world?
Profs, matières, devoirs. What do young people think about aspects of school life? Do you agree or disagree?
Stages et septembre. What work experience have you done and will you do? What are your plans for after your GCSEs?
L'avenir et le succès. What are your longer term options and plans: future study, uni, employment?
Intensive summer exam preparation.

🇫🇷 You will reach this waypoint by June.

Based on feedback from previous students, we shall prepare our Theme 2 PRQs before we break up, so you can pace yourself and learn them over the summer.

🇫🇷 You will reach this waypoint by June.

Video content

Video is a very important component of our bespoke course, which includes carefully curated YouTube clips that provide exposure to authentic material covering French and other French-speaking countries. This is key to our wider educational goals of challenging students and teaching French for the real world.

What else should I know?

- Your Personal Response Questions will be prepared electronically in class under controlled conditions, but with the help of an online dictionary, electronic verb tables and our bespoke scaffolding, to cover a variety of opinions and experiences.
- There is a separate eeBook for PRQ Assignments, as well as new eeBooks for classwork and grammar.
- To be successful, it is essential to be able to describe events in the present, past and future time frames, link sentences using conjunctions, be able to extend ideas, express opinions and give reasons for your views.
- On this course, you will improve your French accent and intonation and develop more confidence in your ability to communicate in this language. This does mean that you will be required to speak not only individually with the teacher but also with and in front of others.

Independent Learning

As a GCSE student, you will most certainly need to learn outside of lesson time some prepared material that you construct in class in order to achieve a pass grade, defined as grade 4 and above. This will be one or more of the following.

Complete any new PRQ assignment for which there was no time in class or for which you were absent.
Consolidate new vocabulary from the material studied or use The Gatwick School Linguascope account. You can still use the beginners section for vocabulary building but you should also now be looking at the intermediate section too, particularly the introductory dialogues
Review grammar notes and verbs and verb endings.
Read, listen or watch any French material specified by your teacher.

Note: there is never any week that you do not have ILTs (Independent Learning Tasks) in French. You should be doing at least one of the above regardless and must take some responsibility for your own learning at this level.

Note that the use of Google Translate and other translation packages and AI is not allowed in lessons or for any work done at home, other than when specific permission is given by the teacher for checking PRQs.

How will I be assessed?

In Year 10, there will be regular testing each term and this will be entirely electronic using locked Chromebooks in strict exam conditions. We will start off in the Autumn term with initial diagnostic tests in both listening and reading to give you an indication of your current comprehension of French.
Early in the Spring term there will be further eAssessments in both listening and reading, plus some speaking and writing test practices based on PRQ assignments completed to date.
In the Summer you will sit full Mock papers (electronically) in both Listening and Reading at either Foundation or Higher tier, depending on your attainment so far. This will give you an accurate GCSE grade for where you are currently in term of receptive language skills. At the end of the term, you will do further speaking and writing practices based on additional PRQs but this time you will also practise describing photo cards and responding to role play prompts.

For your information, the actual GCSE next year will be assessed by means of four components, all worth 25% of the final grade. This chart summarises how this brand new GCSE is structured.
The Examination Board is AQA and the specification number is 8652. You can see the full specification here.

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