Modern Foreign Languages
To take advantage of the opportunities in today’s global jobs market, young people need to wake up to the need for language skills and the fact that acquiring them is fun!The languages department at Churston is committed to make your journey to learning languages an exciting experience whereby the challenges will enhance your communication skills and your creativity.
Languages for all, languages for life to best adapt and shine in this fast changing world!
French, German and Spanish
French is introduced in Year 7 and German or Spanish as the second foreign language in Year 8. The course books used are Expo and Camarades for French, Echo Express for German and Mira Express for Spanish. These are lively communicative courses which have a topic based approach combined with clear grammatical progression. ICT activities are fully blended with the courses to enhance learning. The chosen courses provide full scope for differentiation and a comprehensive assessment programme.
Year 7
Pupils are learning to manipulate the French language, think
creatively and appreciate Foreign cultures.
We are keen to recognise pupils’ existing linguistic skills and aim at
drawing on them. Pupils in primary schools are independent and the
structure of the French course, with regular use of the success ladder
and personalised progress sheets, help the children understand
how to organise their learning and make fast progress in a foreign
language.
In the Autumn term pupils are learning about French speaking
countries particularly countries in Africa.
Pupils have the opportunity to write a French letter to introduce
themselves to French pupils. The school has a very well established
link in Brittany – Le college de la Sabliere.
Pupils will be able to engage in video conferencing as from
November 2011.
In the Autumn term, Sixth formers are happy to run after school
lessons in French for the parents of year 7 children who would like a
little extra exposure to le Français.
In the Spring term year 7 pupils work with short clips, videos from
the British Film Institute and will aim at making their own short clip,
film in French.
In the Summer term, Pupils will work from animated stories on the
Northumberland Grid for learning and will aim at acting one of the
stories studied in lesson time.
The range of topics covered can be found in the progress sheets below:
Topics covered Autumn term Year 7
Topics covered 1 Spring Term Year 7
Topics covered Films Cine Mini
Year 8
Each pupil is issued with a copy of Expo 2 and either Echo express or Mira Express! In French the topics covered include friends, food and drink, Paris and daily routine. In German and Spanish the topics covered include myself, family, freetime, home and town.
Year 9
The course books are Camarades 3 and Logo 2, or Mira Express 2
Camarades provides a non-topic based approach which is designed to be of interest and relevance to young people giving them opportunities to discuss their own ideas, interests, experiences and to compare them with those of others.
Echo express and Mira Express 2 cover the topics of friends, travel, health and fitness, food and drink and shopping.
At the end of Key Stage 3 pupils have covered levels 1 – 6 of the National Curriculum. It is compulsory to study at least one language during Key Stage 4 to GCSE level. During Year 9 pupils have the invaluable opportunity to participate in our annual exchange with Collège de la Sablière in Quimper, Brittany. During Year 10 a similar opportunity is afforded to students of German to participate in an annual exchange with the Annette Gymnasium in Düsseldorf.
Years 10 and 11
The course books at GCSE level are clearly structured with a strong focus on grammar and provide complete coverage of the required content of the Edexcel GCSE syllabus. The skills of listening and reading are examined by the end of year 11 whereas the skills of writing and speaking are assessed throughout years 10 and 11 in the shape of two tasks for each skill. Students are afforded plenty of opportunities for practice and revision, thereby encouraging independent learning.
There is more….
- A wide range of resources, fun tasks promoting independent study skills are available on the school’s system and are accessible from home. Pupils are encouraged to submit assignments on Moodle. The course on Moodle for languages is designed to help pupils communicate across countries in a foreign language.
- Pupils are invited to be actively involved in conferencing with our partner schools. Strong links have been established with France, Germany and Spain.
- Arabic and Russian clubs are run at lunch time.
- Pupils in year 9 are involved in Primary school projects whereby they run French, German and Spanish workshops in our neighbouring primary school.
- Excellent results at GCSE are achieved by our students in languages.
- A GCSE short course is offered to high achieving students at the end of year 9
GCSE short course in French
Following the recent changes in GCSE specifications, we would like to offer to year 9 pupils the opportunity to capitalise on the knowledge of French which has been acquired in the last three years.
The new GCSE short course in MFL provides flexibility and reward in either listening and speaking reading and writing skills; it effectively weighs 50% of a full GCSE.
This split in assessments means that pupils can take two out of the four skills and achieve grades and recognition in a language which they will not study in year 10.
Such an opportunity mainly targets the pupils in year 9 who will not continue with French in years 10 and 11 but who at the end of year 9 are likely to have developed enough skills and vocabulary knowledge to take the reading and writing examinations.
Such an initiative is an asset as it has the potential of rewarding pupils for effort and progress in a subject in which, for various reasons, pupils might not be able to pursue next year.
The languages department will only consider pupils who have shown that they can work independently (keeping to deadlines) and pupils who are linguistically able to take on this challenge.
A short course in reading and writing is what we would offer. Pupils would be entered for the reading examination at the end of year 10, summer 2011. The writing examination would consist of two tasks which would take place under controlled conditions in the Autumn 2010 and Spring 2011. Resources will be made available on N: to help pupils practise reading and writing skills; teaching support will also be offered once a half term to keep a check on progress.
GCSE short course in German and Spanish
We will open this invitation to the strong linguists in year 9 who, after studying Spanish or German for two years, have the ability to take a GCSE short course in either language. This invitation, yet again, is aimed at the pupils who have made enough progress in Spanish or German and who are not in a position to study either next year.
AS A2 French and German
Language graduates have a vast array of career opportunities open to them, ranging from work with well-known multinational companies to international organisations or charities. There are exciting opportunities – often involving travel abroad- in finance/ banking, sales, manufacturing, community/social services, research/medicine, transport/communication. Invest in the future by studying A level languages.
OCR is the examination board for French and German A level.
See below details of the course and examination specifications for both languages.
The topic areas for AS are aspects of daily life, communication, Education, Leisure.
The topic areas for A2 are society, the environment, science and technology, culture.
AS
Unit 1 is the speaking test, with the discussion of an article in the target language and topic discussion. It represents 15% of the marks for A level.
Unit 2 is a written paper, testing the other three skills and with a variety of listening, reading and writing tasks. It represents 70% of the marks for AS (35 % of A level).
A2
Unit 3 is the speaking test, with the discussion of an article in the target language and topic discussion. It represents 15% of the marks for A level.
Unit 4 is a written paper, testing the other three skills, with a variety of tasks involving comprehension and manipulation of language as well as an extended essay. It represents 35% of the marks for A level
1. Students have access to online resources to strengthen their knowledge of grammar as well as their listening and reading comprehension.
2. Students get involved in various interactive and exciting activities in the foreign language for example debates which enhance their communication and presentation skills. Such skills are paramount for university and job interviews.
3. Work experience in France is offered to students in March.