Modern Foreign Languages

Head of Faculty: Miss G Suthers

Throughout Key Stage 3 students are taught French or Spanish in ability sets. Sets 1 and 2, in Year 7, receive two hours a week of either French or Spanish, this then increases to three hours a week in Years 8 and 9.   Sets 3 and 4, in KS3, have one or two hours a week to enable them to follow our literacy intervention programme. Home learning tasks are usually set weekly. Assessments are completed every half term to track and monitor the progress of students in each subject. Feedback is provided to students in terms of the skills they are working towards or have mastered. Targets for further improvement are then shared with students.

At Key Stage 4 French and Spanish are taught as a GCSE option subject and are counted towards the English Baccalaureate. Students that opt to take French or Spanish in Key Stage 4 have 3 hours a week and are working towards one GCSE qualification. They follow the AQA GCSE exam board. They will be awarded a grade 1-9 following their GCSE examinations in the summer of Year 11. Assessments, to track progress, are set regularly throughout each half term.  Feedback is given based on GCSE exam criteria to highlight areas of strength and development throughout the course.

Throughout their time at Kirkby High School, students are taught the following key skills:

Listening:  To understand and respond to different types of spoken language.

Speaking:  To communicate and interact in speech.

Reading:  To understand and respond to different types of written language.

Writing:  To communicate in writing.

 

Overview of the Modern Foreign Languages Curriculum

The topics students cover throughout Key Stage 3 and Key Stage 4 are outlined in the table below:

Year Autumn 1 Autumn 2 Spring 1 Spring 2 Summer 1 Summer 2
7 French Self:Greetings and feelings;

Classroom and school bag items;

Alphabet;

Counting up to 31;

Days and months;

Birthdays;

Colours.

 Family and friends:Family members;

Animals;

Describing yourself and others;

Hair and eye colour and descriptions.

 House andhome:

Where you live;

Describing your home;

Describing your bedroom;

Talking about what you do in the evening;

Telling the time.

 Town:Places in a town;

Adjectives to describe a town;

Asking for and giving directions;

Expressing opinions;

Ordering snacks and drinks.

 School and routine:Daily routine;

School subjects;

Opinions and reasons;

School timetables;

After-school activities.

 

 Free time:Sports and games;

Musical instruments;

Saying what you like to do;

At the leisure centre;

Going on holiday.

 
8 French Family andhome:

Talking about yourself;

Talking about families;

Talking about jobs people do;

Talking about where people live;

Describing the weather.

 Free time and leisure:Leisure time and activities;

TV/Films/Cinema;

Last weekend using the past tense;

Next weekend using the future tense.

 Invitations to go out:Making and reacting to invitations;

Making excuses;

Buying clothes;

Saying where you went (the perfect tense).

 

 Food and drink:Food you like and don’t like;

Breakfast and lunch;

Preparing for a party;

Buying provisions;

Evening meals.

 Holidays and travel:Countries and languages;

Talking about holidays;

Describing a holiday centre;

Finding out information about a holiday centre;

Talking about a past holiday.

 Friends:Talking about your friends;

Pocket money;

Gadgets (new technologies including social media);

Plans for the holidays;

Talking about plans and dreams.
9 French Interests and hobbies:Talking about what you watch on TV;

Talking about cinema and films;

Describing yourself and others;

Talking about what you read;

Talking about what you did last weekend.

 The future:Planning on what you are going to do;

Talking about the future;

Talking about future careers;

Why languages are important;

Using languages: a case study.

 Healthy lifestyles:Talking about illness;

Saying what’s wrong;

Healthy living;

Understanding and giving advice;

Keep-fit activities.

 People like us:French speaking sports people

Describing other people

Understanding information about people

A whodunit!

Who did it?

 Let’s go:Learning about a region of France;

Travel arrangements;

Arranging hotel accommodation;

A visit to an attraction;

A visit to a motor race.

 Rights of the young:Schools in different countries;

Young people and work;

Tackling hunger in the world;

Learning about religion in France;

Human rights activists.
10 GCSE French Me, my family and friends.Relationships with others.

 

 Home, town, neighbourhood and region.

My studies

 Free time activities, food and eating out.

Social issues.

 Free time activities, food and eating out. Life at school and college.

Customs and traditions.

 Travel and tourism.

Education post-16.
11 GCSE French Global issues.

Social issues.

 Career choices and ambitions.

 

 Technology in everyday life.

Global issues.

 Preparation for final exams. Preparation for final exams.

 

Year Autumn 1 Autumn 2 Spring 1 Spring 2 Summer 1 Summer 2
7 Spanish Self:Introducing yourself;

Counting up to 31;

Saying when your birthday is;

Alphabet;

Classroom items.

 School:School subjects;

Saying what you do in lessons;

Talking about your teachers;

Giving opinions and reasons;

Talking about snacks.

.

 Family:Talking about brothers and sisters;

Counting up to 100;

Talking about pets;

Talking about appearance and character;

Talking about hair and eyes.

 House and home:Talking about where you live;

Describing where you live;

Talking about the rooms in your home;

Describing your bedroom.

 Free time:Saying what you do in your free time;

Telling the time;

Talking about sports;

Saying what you like to do;

Saying what you are going to do.

 Town:Saying what your town is like;

Asking about places in a town;

Making and responding to invitations;

Talking about the weather;

Using 2 tenses together;

Saying what you do in town.
8 Spanish People:Talking about yourself;

Talking about activities;

Describing friends using adjectives;

Describing celebrities;

Using reflexive verbs;

Understanding nationalities.

 

 Going out:Talking about places in a town;

The present and near future tenses (using sequencing words);

Inviting someone to go out;

Making excuses;

Saying what someone else likes and dislikes.

 

 Holidays:Saying where you went on holiday;

Saying how you travelled;

Saying what you did on holiday;

Giving more details about your holiday;

Giving a presentation about a holiday.

 

 Mealtimes:Talking about mealtimes;

Shopping for food;

Eating at a restaurant;

Talking about a past meal;

Talking about likes and dislikes (using past, present and future together).

 

 

 Fashion:Talking about clothes;

Talking about school uniform;

Choosing an item of clothing;

Talking about a trip to Argentina;

Saying what you wore at a fancy dress ball (using past, present and future together).

 

 Barcelona:Saying what there is to see and do in Barcelona;

Talking about different types of shop;

Asking for and giving directions;

Describing a holiday in Barcelona;

Reading a story set in Barcelona.
9 Spanish Communication:Talking about what you use computers for;

Talking about TV programmes;

Talking about films;

Talking about different types of music;

Describing a concert.

 

 School:Describing your school;

Talking about what you will study next year;

Talking about school rules;

Talking about a day at school.

 

 HealthyLifestyles:

Learning the parts of the body;

Describing symptoms;

Talking about healthy and unhealthy food;

Talking about healthy living;

Making resolutions;

Learning about Mediterranean diet.

 

 The world of work:Talking about earning and spending money;

Talking about what you would like to do;

Talking about using languages at work;

Talking about future plans;

Talking about jobs;

Talking about jobs you have done (speaking and writing the past and present tense).

 Latin America:Learning more about Spanish-speaking countries;

Learning more about Central and South America;

Describing daily routine;

Learning about famous people.

 

 My home is your home:Writing a letter to introduce yourself;

Meeting and greeting people;

Buying train tickets;

Learning about Bilbao;

Writing a letter (using the past and near future tenses together).

 
10 GCSE Spanish Me, my family and friends.Relationships with others.

 

 Home, town, neighbourhood and region.

My studies

 Free time activities, food and eating out.

Social issues.

 Free time activities, food and eating out. Life at school and college.

Customs and traditions.

 Travel and tourism.

Education post-16.
11 GCSE Spanish Global issues.

Social issues.

 Career choices and ambitions.

 

 Technology in everyday life.

Global issues.

 Preparation for final exams. Preparation for final exams.

 

Links to GCSE Exam Board Specifications

The specification code for GCSE French is 8658

www.aqa.org.uk/subjects/languages/gcse/French-8658

The specification code for GCSE Spanish is 8698

www.aqa.org.uk/subjects/languages/gcse/spanish-8698

 

Additional Information

Extra-curricular activities which take place throughout the academic year include:

  • Interventions – these take place during lunchtimes and after school according to the intervention timetable put together at the start of each academic year for pupils in year 11.
  • Revision sessions – these are put on during school holidays.
  • Homework – this is set weekly for each year group in both French and Spanish.  Pupils are encouraged to seek teacher support if they have difficulty in completing the tasks before deadlines set.
  • Year 7 MFL spelling bee – pupils are entered at the start of year 7 and compete against other schools in the north west.
  • German and Chinese clubs – these take place at either lunchtime or after school to further promote and encourage language learning and different cultures.

 

Teaching Staff

Miss G Suthers Head of Faculty
Miss S Baker Teacher of MFL and Head of Year 8
Miss C Cesbron Teacher of MFL