The Departments aims:

The main aim of the Modern Foreign Languages Department is to work within the framework of the National Curriculum and to enable students to enjoy a positive learning experience, studying French and/or Spanish in a manner, which is meaningful, interactive and communicative. We believe that all students can learn and acquire important transferable skills when learning a Modern Foreign Language. We support all students in their learning and strive to make the learning experience as “realistic” as possible, so that students are set up for life long learning. In the context of a catholic school, our Core Values of Faith, Justice, Truth, Compassion and Respect, are reflected in our teaching.

We encourage our students to learn not just the language of another culture, but also to get to know about its culture, customs and how it compares and contrasts to our own. This is also taken within the context of our Catholic ethos in the school, and in identifying the importance of the role of the Catholic Church in Spain and France.

In Year 7 students are taught in their tutor groups and spend half the academic term learning French and the other half learning Spanish. At the end of the year students are allowed to choose which one they would like to continue with into years 8 and 9. The idea behind this is to allow our students to study the language they are most interested in and therefore they will work harder and better and achieve more.

In Years 8 and 9 the students are placed into groups according to ability in order to be able to tailor the teaching more accurately to their levels and learning styles. This way they will achieve their targets and be successful.

At GCSE we offer both Spanish and French and we follow the OCR course. As part of the learning experience we organise a 5 day residential trip to France/Spain so that students can experience at first hand the culture and gain confidence with the language and so therefore achieve higher grades.

Facilities :
Each classroom is equipped with an interactive whiteboard, and access to the internet, to enable the teacher to access a whole range of resources in the classroom. We also have a Foreign Language Assistant who is a native speaker and who supports the teaching and learning in the faculty.