Key Stage 3: Lower School

French, German and Spanish are taught at Key Stage 3. There are five forms at entry and three of these forms take French and two take German in Year 7. In Year 8 all forms continue with their first language and pick up a second language. Boys have more lessons in their second language throughout Year 8 and Year 9 so that by the end of Year 9 they are at the same level in their two chosen languages.

French, German and Spanish Courses

The course features a rigorous and comprehensive approach to grammar teaching as well as motivating and challenging topics and tasks, set in authentic contexts. Each language follows a textbook which provides a confidence boosting structure for the students, but teachers will always then supplement this with new and relevant material based on the students’ and teachers’ interests. 

In French we follow the Tricolore textbooks, In German, we use the Zoom courses, and in Spanish Claro and Así2.

Evaluation is ongoing through a combination of self, peer and teacher led assessment, in line with the Assessment for Learning [AfL] strategy. Further evaluation may take place at the end of completed coursebook Units, every few weeks, often using self and peer assessment in class time and may be ‘open book’ or memory tests. There is an end of year internal examination in the Summer term.