Modern Foreign Languages

Staffing and Role:

Miss Matthews - Head of MFL 
Mr La Bua  - Teacher of MFL 
Dr Bonci - Teacher of MFL 

Vision Statement:

The MFL Department aims to provide students with:

  • The necessary skills and language to engage in meaningful conversations with native speakers of their language of study.
  • A solid grammar, vocabulary and phonics base to enable them to achieve the best of their ability in their chosen language.
  • The necessary skills to become resilient, independent and creative learners.
  • Competent use of verbs and tenses.
  • An understanding and appreciation of grammatical structures (adjectives, adverbs, word order).
  • Solid vocabulary base covering a variety of topics from personal experiences (self, family, friends, free time, holidays, home and local area) to wider issues (new technology, healthy living, the environment, social issues).
  • A bank of high frequency words and phrases in order to aid extension across all topic areas.
  • The necessary language skills, cultural appreciation and sense of enquiry to be able to take their studies beyond GCSE if they wish.
  • Skills to enable further study/travel/residence in a country where their chosen language is spoken.
  • Dynamic, creative and challenging lessons in order to promote student engagement to enable them to achieve to the best of their ability in their language of study.
French and Spanish are currently on offer for study.

All students are currently studying either French or Spanish. Their study builds on the foundation of linguistic knowledge acquired at KS2. Those studying French are following the Allez course; those studying Spanish are following the Zoom Course. We also make use of further resources such as NCELP, Conti and Studio/Viva as well as implementing authentic materials such as articles, songs, reports and literary pieces.

KS3 Learning Journey - French 23-24.pptx

KS3 Learning Journey - Spanish 23-24.pptx

Students are studying for the AQA GCSE in French or Spanish. Some students are studying 2 languages. We use the Oxford AQA GCSE course book in each language. We also make use of further resources such as NCELP, Conti and Studio/Viva as well as implementing authentic materials such as articles, songs, reports and literary pieces.

Teachers actively post revision materials and resources on the Microsoft Teams page for their classes. We encourage pupils to check this frequently for their revision.
www.kerboodle.com   Pupils can access the course book and many online resources for practice and revision using their Kerboodle login.
www.conjuguemos.com  – Grammar and vocabulary practice. Pupils will be provided with a teacher code for tailor-made activities.
www.notesinspanish.com  
Please take an active interest in what your child is learning in MFL.
Deliberate practice is an excellent way to involve and immerse yourself in your child's MFL learning. For example, you could watch TV together with subtitles in the foreign language, listen to foreign radio/songs, follow foreign websites/applications/accounts on social media, visit a restaurant that serves the cuisine of the country of study. If possible, arrange holidays to a country where the language is spoken.
In addition to any written homework, they will have vocabulary and/or grammar to learn each week. You can help by testing them. Let your child try and teach you what they have been learning. This is a really good way for them to embed the knowledge.
  • Prefect leaders run clubs and drop-in sessions in each of the languages on offer
  • Revision and support sessions are on offer from your child's teacher in Year 10 and 11
  • We have run successful visits to France and Spain and hope to be able to offer further foreign visits.
  • Department staff are able to speak multiple more languages including Russian, Italian and German and are keen to support pupils with wider linguistic study.
Further information

For more details, please contact Miss Matthews, Head of MFL, at b.matthews@testbourne.school.