Modern Foreign Languages

The Modern Foreign Languages Department offers our pupils the opportunity to learn two foreign languages in a lively, stimulating way, promoting enthusiasm and the ability to communicate effectively in the foreign language.

French is taught from the Nursery upwards with increasing lesson allocation in older year groups and German is introduced in Year 6. As much as possible of each lesson is delivered in the target language. Classwork consists of oral work, including pair or group work, role plays, songs, games, short to longer listening exercises, reading, comprehension, grammar exercises and written pieces of work.

The two specialist rooms are equipped with an interactive whiteboard, overhead projector, CD player/listening station, DVD recorder and a white magnetic board. A language laboratory adjacent to one of the teaching rooms is available for quiet, independent work or language games using the department's language software and/or subscribed web-sites. Each classroom has a computer linked to the school network with internet access. The department endeavours to use the computers in the library on as regular a basis as possible.

We encourage the use of ICT to complement language learning and use audio, CD-Roms, DVD, Internet and Interactive Whiteboard in the classroom to provide a diversity of learning experiences. The cultural element form part of the teaching in the form of authentic material from France, Germany and French/German speaking countries, DVDs with stories or a TV series as well as events such as food tasting or language plays performed in the school by theatre companies.

Every two years the department runs a French study trip for Year 6 to Meluzien near Dijon in order to provide an opportunity to enhance the pupils' language skills and interest in laguage and culture further. In the past years we have built a strong link with the Waldstadt Grundschule in Potsdam and correspondence (post and emails) between pupils takes place on a regular basis. Every two years our pupils have the opportunity to spend a week before Christmas staying with their exchange partners' family enjoying Advent in Germany and going to school every day. The German pupils return the visit later in the school year.

The MFL department strongly believes that learning two foreign languages is one way of broadening our pupils' horizons and fostering good understanding between people from different cultures.