French

The Modern Foreign Language (MFL) rooms are brand new and fully equipped for innovative classroom work; with each room having an interactive whiteboard, projection and ICT facilities, allowing teachers to provide a full multimedia experience for students.

French has recently been added to the MFL curriculum. Staff able to teach French include:

Mrs L Bennett
Mrs R Wales 
Mrs O Flower

Key Stage 3

Modern foreign languages are an important part of the KS3 curriculum because not only do they develop key employment skills such as communication, problem solving and attention to detail, they also contribute to other important skills such as working with others, improving own learning, plus numeracy and literacy across the curriculum. Studying a foreign language therefore specifically supports English by teaching things such as grammar and sentence construction and covers the four skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing.

All students study French at KS3.  Students study two languages in Years 7 to 8 and students will normally have two lessons per fortnight for each language. At the end of year 8 students opt for either French or Spanish. This then means that students can commence a three year GCSE programme.

Course content for KS3 French includes:

Year 7 Assessment without Levels infomation
Year 8 Assessment without Levels infomation
Year 9 Assessment without Levels infomation

Key Stage 4

All students are given the opportunity to study a modern foreign language at KS4. GCSE French is delivered in Years  9, 10 and 11. Year 10 follow the AQA examination board specification and this will continue into Year 11. Students are able to sit foundation or higher tier examinations in this subject.

Course content for GCSE French (AQA) includes the following topics:

• lifestyle
• relationships and choices
• free time and the media
• holidays
• home and local area
• environment
• work and education
• current and future jobs

Assessment – AQA

Students are assessed in the four key skill areas of speaking, listening, reading and writing. The assessments are all equal in weight 25% for each of the 4 skills. All are tested at the end of Y11. Newly added course content means there is a now a role play, photo card and general conversation on two of the topics covered for GCSE. Students also have a short translation task to do in the reading paper.

Grading in MFL now uses the 1-9 system with 1 being the lowest and 9 being the highest (A**).

Click here for further information on this course.

Key Stage 5

Students who complete their French GCSE to a grade B or above in French are advised that they should consider studying French at A Level. The KS5 A Level French qualification follows the Edexcel examination board specification. 

Course content for AS/A2 Level French (Years 12/13) includes the following topics:

• la famille et vous
• l’éducation, le monde du travail
• les loisirs
• mode de vie
• en route
• SOS planète
• les arts, la mode, la publicité et Internet
• l’état et l’individu
• la France: terre d’accueil?
• santé physique, santé morale
• la riche et le pauvre
• tournons-nous vers l’avenir?

Assessment

Year 12 – AS Level

Students will be expected to take a speaking examination, which will be recorded by the teacher and sent off to the examination board and a final examination - understanding & written response - covering the other three skills of listening, reading and writing. The speaking examination is worth 30% of the total AS examination in Year 12 and contributes 15% towards the full A Level at the end of Year 13. The understanding and written response examination is worth 70% of the total AS examination in Year 12 and contributes 35% towards the full A level at the end of Year 13.

Year 13 – A2 Level

Students will be expected to take a speaking examination, which will be recorded by the teacher and sent off to the examination board and a final written paper - Research: understanding and written response in French. The speaking examination is worth 35% of the total A2 examination and contributes 17.5% towards the full A Level at the end of Year 13. The understanding and written response examination is worth 65% of the total A2 examination and contributes 32.5% towards the full A Level at the end of Year 13.

MFL Controlled Assessment Checklist for Parents

The Eiffel Tower

The French Underground

French Pastries

French Market