What Languages Do We Study

ModernForeign Languages at SFX

CURRICULUM

All boys have the opportunity to study French and Spanish at school. Our aims are to provide pupils with opportunities to achieve their potential as learners and foster an appreciation of different cultures, customs and traditions.

KEY STAGE 3

All boys study both French and Spanish in Years 7, 8 and 9. They are split into two bands of equal ability (Yellow and Green). Each band is then divided into sets by ability. Boys in the Yellow year half study French for 2 hours per week and Spanish for 1 hour per week. Boys in the Green year half study Spanish for 2 hours per week and French for 1 hour per week. The pupils swap their major and minor languages in Year 8 and then revert back to how things were in Year 7 as they enter Year 9.

YEARS 10 & 11

We run GCSE courses in French and Spanish in Key Stage 4. The boys have a chance to broaden the knowledge and skills gained in languages at Key Stage 3 and work towards a qualification. We currently use the Edexcel for our GCSE groups. Results have been very good and are improving (In 2009, 87% of pupils in French achieved a grade C or better (40% A*-A). In Spanish, 89% of pupils achieved a grade C or better (34% A*-A)).

YEARS 12 & 13

We offer AS and A2 courses in French and Spanish to our own students but also welcome students from schools in our collaborative partnership and other schools in South Liverpool. Our courses allow students to gain an in-depth knowledge of the culture and literature of the countries where French and Spanish are spoken. A Level results in Modern Foreign Languages have been excellent over the years. (Our departmental pass rate for A level has been 100% over the last five years).

EXTRA CURRICULAR

We have partner schools in Madrid (Spain) and St Nazaire (France). The pupils have opportunities to get involved in home-stay exchanges, email and videoconferencing projects with pupils in these schools. We have applied for Comenius funding to support our exchanges with the schools Spain and France.

In addition, we run trips to local universities, the theatre and cinema for languages events and celebrate European Languages Day all over school in September.

We are also developing our access to tuition for boys who speak a language other than English at home – to help them maintain and develop their language skills

STAFF

Our department consists of 5 full-time teachers of MFL who can offer Polish, Italian and Portuguese in addition to French and Spanish. We also have dedicated language assistants for both languages (one from France and one from Spain). As a learning department, we support our own Continuing Professional Development and we participate in Initial Teacher Training as a partner with Hope University.

ACCOMMODATION & RESOURCES

We have a suite of 5 adjacent classrooms for MFL lessons and one dedicated Languages Study Room. All rooms are equipped with ICT to support learning, including interactive whiteboards, data projectors and other audio-visual equipment.

All staff have sets of textbooksandactiveteach to support their teaching. We use the Studio and Mira series for Years 7-11 and a variety of resources for Years 12-13. Additionally, we have access to a range of authentic and graded print and audio-visual materials to support all of our learners of different abilities. Our pupils have access toa range oftosubscription websites to support their studies and exam preparation in KS3, 4 and 5.

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