In the classroom we favour a communicative approach to language learning, but acquisition of grammatical structures is at the core of our work at all levels.

Key Stage Three

French is taken by all pupils in the First, Second and Third Forms and by those pupils who have opted for the subject at Key Stage 4, in the Fourth and Fifth Forms. Spanish is taught as a second foreign language in the Second Form to all pupils in sets 1-4 for an hour a week as part of the MFL allocation. Pupils in sets 1 & 2 continue in the same way into the Third Form, but pupils in sets 3 & 4 may continue with Spanish in addition to 3 hours of French or take Classical Civilisation. The ultimate decision as to which pupils continue with Spanish or not rests with the teaching staff, though the pupils’ viewpoints are taken into account.

Key Stage 4

The study of a modern foreign language is no longer compulsory in line with National Curriculum requirements. There are three sets of French and one of Spanish in the new Fourth Form. The languages available at GCSE level are French and Spanish and boys taking other languages on their own account are not exempt from this.

At Sixth Form level, French and Spanish are offered at ‘AS/A2' level.

In the First Form we aim to consolidate any knowledge of French acquired in primary schools and seek to develop the boys’ ability to speak, understand spoken and written French and to write accurately. Their areas of experience will include introducing themselves, talking about where they live, about pets, festivals and celebrations, about the weather and free time activities, out and about in town and daily home and school routines.

In the Second Form they will continue to develop their language skills in the following topic areas. Talking about food, drink and meal times, talking about more free time activities, shopping, talking about future holiday plans, talking about school and aspects of school life, and talking about family life, staying with a French family.

In the Third Form the boys will develop their ability to communicate in the past, present and future including the following topic areas. Going out to cafés, bars and restaurants, talking about travel plans (rail, air, coach and boat) including recent trips. Discussing clothes, descriptions and going to a chemist’s and doctor’s. Discussing leisure activities, accepting and refusing invitations and discussing things you’ve done.

The overarching work of the department at key stage 3 is to develop confidence in the boys’ ability to learn a new language by laying solid foundations in language learning. We focus on strategies such as comparing pronunciation in English and French, similarities in both languages, the gender of nouns and its effect on adjectives and past participles, using qualifiers and learning about cognates. Coping with new vocabulary, high frequency words, using connectives, spelling patterns, working out meanings, adding more detail and the sequence of words in French.

Similar topics and strategies are employed and covered in the teaching of Spanish at key stage 3.

GCSE

Both French and Spanish include elements of oral, listening, reading and written coursework as part of the examination process at the end of the course.

The coursework topics vary from year to year and from class to class and are taken from the list of prescribed topics in the Edexcel specification. These are as follows:

• At home and abroad
• Education, training and employment
• House, home and daily routine
• Media, entertainment and youth culture
• Social activities, fitness and health

At the core of our teaching lies the grammatical structures that form the basis of language learning. The pupils learn to understand and use nouns, articles, adjectives, adverbs, quantifiers, pronouns, verbs in a variety of tenses, prepositions, conjunctions and time indicators.

AS

In Lower Sixth French we follow the coursebook Elan in partnership with the OCR specification and in Spanish we follow the coursebook Sigue, also endorsed by OCR. The AS GCE is made up of two mandatory units, which are externally assessed and form 50% of the corresponding four-unit Advanced GCE.

Unit 1 is the speaking test, with a role-play and topic discussion. It represents 30% of the marks for AS (15% of 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).

The topic areas for the AS specifications are:

• The family: different structures and relationships; living conditions (housing, shopping and patterns of daily life)
• Food, drink, health, obsessions and addictions
• Transport: trends and patterns in usage (for the individual and at local and national levels).
  

Leisure and entertainment sub-topics

• Sport (including national sporting concerns and traditions)
• Tourism and related themes: tourism as a changing phenomenon; tourism and the environment
• Leisure activities: aspects of cultural life, e.g. film, theatre; the arts as part of leisure time. 

Communication and media sub-topics

• Communication technology: patterns and changes to communication in daily life
• Media, e.g. written press; radio; television (roles and influences). 

Education and training sub-topics

• School and school life: individual experiences; local and national concerns
• Work and training: individual experiences; school to work preparation, transition and aspirations.
  

A2

In Upper Sixth French we plan to continue using the coursebook Elan and in Spanish we will use Sigue 2.

Spoken and written sources will include material that relates to the contemporary society, cultural background and heritage of one or more of the countries or communities where the language is spoken. The topic areas for the A2 specification are:

Society sub-topics

• Integration and exclusion: age; gender; race; religion; equality of opportunity

• Law and order: trends of crime and punishment; civil unrest; policing
• Unemployment: causes and consequences (local, national or global).

The environment sub-topics

• The individual and the environment: recycling; reducing individual energy usage and impact; local conservation
• Energy management: alternative energy sources; changing use of fossil fuels; nuclear energy; changing energy demands
• Pollution: causes; consequences; solutions
• Conservation of the natural world: changing habitats; impact of man and pollution; local, national or global initiatives.

Science and technology: impact and issues sub-topics

• Medical progress: development and change – impacts on health care, lifestyles, ethics and beliefs
• Scientific advances: change and innovation – impacts and issues on society, knowledge, education
• Technological developments: change and development – impacts on lifestyles, habits, work and education.
  

Culture sub-topics

• Literature and the arts: trends, changes, influences and impacts on individuals and society
• Political issues: changes at local and national level; impacts on the individual and society
• Heritage and history: influence and impacts of heritage (including colonial heritage) and historical events (national and international) on contemporary society.
  

Outside the classroom

We organise a day trip to France for Lower School boys in July as part of activity days. We spend the day in the Boulogne and Calais area where the boys have the opportunity to visit a sealife aquarium, spend some time on the beach front and do some shopping in order to practise their French language skills.

We also organise an exchange trip for key stage 4 pupils of French with a secondary school in the Champagne district of France. The pupils, accompanied by their French teachers spend a week with French families and experience school and daily life in France in October. Their French partners return in May the following year to spend a week with our families here in London. The exchange is of considerable value, not only in the fact that it provides a unique opportunity for the pupils to practise their spoken French but also for the cultural opportunities and development of social skills.