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Modern Languages

Welcome to the MFL Department

"If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his own language that goes to his heart."  - Nelson Mandela

Acting Head of Department:

Mrs Wilson
e-mail: pwilson55.310@parkhighstanmore.org.uk

French/German/Spanish

Key Stage 3

The focus of every MFL lesson is communication in the target language. Key Stage 3 topics are selected to engage our students and to enable them to discuss with confidence, give opinions and debate topics. Topics are selected to allow students to engage in meaningful conversations about themselves and the world around them. This includes, talking about themselves, their routines, school and where they live. Vocabulary, new structures and grammar are explicitly taught and modelled by teachers and then put into practice by students every lesson. 

MFL has a spiral curriculum, which allows teachers to revisit previous knowledge, while adding more sophisticated vocabulary and sentence structures. This gives students the confidence to manipulate and rephrase language in order to complete reading, writing, listening or speaking tasks. Students are encouraged to make links with previously taught language across units, to avoid them seeing language as something which is fixed. Model sentences provide the scaffolding needed to use a foreign language successfully. The language must be fluid and students and teachers will adapt it to current cultural trends and issues. Resources include novels, poetry, songs and authentic material from the target language country. This sets the foundation for more complex language at KS4 and beyond. 

Curriculum aims: 

  • To develop an interest in learning to speak another language. 
  • To improve the confidence of pupils to use the skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing. 
  • To increase awareness of the importance and relevance of language learning. 
  • To highlight the fact that skills acquired through learning a new language are transferrable to other aspects of life. 
  • To promote an interest in other cultures.
  • To raise awareness of the benefits of language learning and the opportunities available to those who speak a foreign language.

Year 7

Autumn Spring Summer
  1. Greetings 
  2. Numbers 
  3. Age
  4. Birthdays
  5. Classroom language 
  6. Assessment  
  7. Nationalities  
  1. Verb to live and housing 
  2. Rooms  
  3. Bedroom furniture and prepositions 
  4. Assessment 
  5.  Household chores with infinitives  
  6. Household chores present tense of regular verbs  
  1. Countries  
  2. Transport and adjectives 
  3. Weather
  4. Accommodation                       
  5. Assessment 
  6. Future tense 
  1. Family  
  2. Names and ages of family members
  3. Physical description. 1st and 3rd person. (hair and eyes) 
  4. Physical description.
  5. Pets
  6. Assessment 
  7. Christmas traditions
  1. Time  
  2. Days of the week and subjects 
  3. School subjects & opinions
  4. Uniform, colours & opinions                          
  5. Assessment
  6. Easter traditions
  1. TV programmes 
  2. Short film and review activities 
  3. Assessment 
  4. Hobbies with key verbs 
  5. Sports 

Knowledge Organisers:

French 

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German

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Spanish

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KS3 Assessment:

Home learning is allocated on a weekly basis by each department. It may be an isolated piece of work, a project, research or an alternative task which challenges the students to solidify their knowledge and / or extend it. We will be providing a weekly quiz on teams to highlight any areas that we need to revisit or re teach.

In the Summer Term, each student will sit a formal, internal exam which will consist of all elements taught throughout the course.  Appropriate preparation in the form of revision should be taken seriously with sufficient planning and organisation to ensure each student fulfils their potential.

Year 8

Autumn Spring Summer
  1. Parts of the body
  2. Illness
  3. Remedies
  4. Assessment
  5. Regular present tense
  6. Irregular present tense of key verbs
  1. Town and where you live 
  2. Facilities and activities in town  
  3. Description of a town 
  4. Town v Countryside  
  5. Assessment writing
  6. Environment (personal e.g. I recycle) 
  1. Questions in the past tense 
  2. Holiday activities using the preterit tense 
  3. Description of a past holiday- including travel, dates, accommodation using memory techniques and speaking activities  
  4. Recap weather and tenses 
  5. Assessment writing
  6. Research project 
  1. Food items and opinions
  2. Meal times and routines in TL countries
  3. Key verbs in 3 tenses
  4. Eating out - Role play!
  5. Assessment writing
  6. Daily routine and reflexive verbs in 1st and 3rd person
  7. Christmas traditions in TL countries
  1. Work- jobs and key verbs 
  2. Future and conditional tense  
  3. School routines 
  4. Extended descriptions of school 
  5. Extra-curricular- activities 
  6. Assessment writing
  1. Assessment  EOY
  2. Film genres 
  3. Opinions 
  4. Feedback and address misconceptions 
  5. Literature based activity (poem or extracts)  
  6. Cultural project  

Knowledge Organisers:

French

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German

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Spanish

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KS3 Assessment:

Home learning is allocated on a weekly basis by each department. It may be an isolated piece of work, a project, research or an alternative task which challenges the students to solidify their knowledge and / or extend it.

In the Summer Term, each student will sit a formal, internal exam which will consist of all elements taught throughout the course.  Appropriate preparation in the form of revision should be taken seriously with sufficient planning and organisation to ensure each student fulfils their potential.

Year 9

Autumn Spring Summer
  1. Technology – devices, apps and comparatives  
  2. Uses of technology-  present tense  
  3. Uses of technology – past and future  
  4. Revision of family -  Relationship verbs (to get on with, to argue etc…)  
  5. Assessment & addressing misconceptions  
  6. Photocard - description 
  7. (Advantages and disadvantages of technology) 
  1. Buying food - quantities and prices   
  2. Ordering food in a shop / market 
  3. Ordering food in a restaurant- designing menus/ role plays . 
  4. Healthy and unhealthy habits. 
  5. Writing assessment and addressing misconceptions from assessment 
  6. Describing a photograph and the present continuous 
  1. Revision and preparation for end of year exam  
  2. EOY exam  
  3. School and future plans. 
  4. School rules 
  5. Comparison between school systems in TL countries  
  6. EOY exam addressing misconceptions.
  1. Different genres of music with opinions  
  2. Study of TL musicians - description 
  3. Study a TL singer / band / music festivals in TL country -sophisticated opinions?  
  4. Writing assessment and addressing misconceptions from assessment  
  5. TV and cinema -   
  6. Study a TL film / Christmas traditions in TL country / New year’s resolutions.
  1. Where you live - pros and cons  
  2. Local environmental problems 
  3. Recycling  - 3 tenses  
  4. Environmental solutions  
  5. Writing assessment & addressing misconceptions  
  6. TL Film
  1. Types of accommodation, description, facilities 
  2. Problems on holiday 
  3. Booking accommodation and role plays (including an assessment)  
  4. At the tourist office 
  5. Directions 
  6. Research a TL tourist resort- design a brochure for the hotel/area. 

Knowledge Organisers:

French

Y9 French Knowledge Organisers on SharePoint

German

Y9 German Knowledge Organisers on SharePoint

Spanish

Y9 Spanish Knowledge Organisers on SharePoint

KS3 Assessment:
Home learning is allocated on a weekly basis by each department. It may be an isolated piece of work, a project, research or an alternative task which challenges the students to solidify their knowledge and / or extend it.

In the Summer Term, each student will sit a formal, internal exam which will consist of all elements taught throughout the course.  Appropriate preparation in the form of revision should be taken seriously with sufficient planning and organisation to ensure each student fulfils their potential.

Key Stage 4

Year 10 and 11

GCSE French, German and Spanish will cover the following topics:

Theme 1: Identity and culture

Topic 1: Me, my family and friends

  • Relationships with family and friends
  • Marriage/partnership

Topic 2: Technology in everyday life

  • Social media
  • Mobile technology

Topic 3: Free-time activities

  • Music
  • Cinema and TV
  • Food and eating out
  • Sport

Topic 4: Customs and festivals in Spanish-speaking countries

Theme 2: Local, national, international and global areas of interest

Topic 1: Home, town, neighbourhood and region

Topic 2: Social issues

  • Charity/voluntary work
  • Healthy/unhealthy living

Topic 3: Global issues

  • The environment
  • Poverty/homelessness

Topic 4: Travel and tourism

Theme 3: Current and future study and employment

Topic 1: My studies

Topic 2: Life at school/college

Topic 3: Education post-16

Topic 4: Jobs, career choices and ambitions

KS4 Assessment:

All students who follow this course will be given home learning weekly.  Wider reading is always useful either from the websites offered, the text book or as directed by their classroom teacher.

In the Summer Term, each student will sit a formal, internal exam which will consist of all elements taught throughout the course.  Appropriate preparation in the form of revision should be taken seriously with sufficient planning and organisation to ensure each student fulfils their potential.

GCSE French/German/Spanish (Foundation Tier)

Paper 1: Listening                                           35 minutes, 40 marks, 25% of GCSE

Paper 2: Speaking                                           7–9 minutes  + preparation time, 60 marks, 25% of GCSE

Paper 3: Reading                                            45 minutes, 60 marks, 25% of GCSE

Paper 4 Writing                                               1 hour, 50 marks, 25% of GCSE

GCSE French/German/Spanish (Higher Tier)

Paper 1: Listening                                           45 minutes, 50 marks, 25% of GCSE

Paper 2: Speaking                                           10–12 minutes + preparation time, 60 marks, 25% of GCSE

Paper 3: Reading                                            1 hour, 60 marks, 25% of GCSE

Paper 4 Writing                                               1 hour 15 minutes, 60 marks, 25% of GCSE

Examination Board :

AQA

Course Specification:

French AQA 8658

German AQA 8668

Spanish AQA 8698

Qualification obtained:

GCSE French

GCSE German

GCSE Spanish

 

Additional Information  

Useful Reading Material

French

  • STUDIO AQA GCSE French Higher
  • CGP French Higher
  • EXPO French
  • Pocket French dictionary

German

  • STIMMT AQA GCSE German Higher
  • CGP German Higher
  • ECHO German ISBN
  • German dictionary

Spanish

  • VIVA AQA GCSE Spanish Higher
  • CGP Spanish Higher
  • MIRA Spanish GCSE
  • Pocket Spanish