Languages

The Languages Faculty

The Languages Faculty consists of the French, German, and Spanish departments. It is a friendly and supportive team committed to the teaching of languages in order to equip our young people with the skills and ideology needed to live and succeed in a multicultural society. In an increasingly competitive job market our students will need to earn their place alongside highly skilled workers from abroad who all have English as a second language.

We aim to enthuse our students for languages through stimulating, innovative and challenging lessons delivered through a wide variety of teaching and learning styles. Emphasis is placed on the spoken language and building up students’ confidence to enable them to enjoy using the foreign language. We aim to develop a whole area approach to the improvement of communication, social and grammatical skills which are essential if our students are to leave Redborne with the confidence to manipulate the written and spoken word for their own pleasure and purpose in the future. Learning a language is an enriching experience that continues well after school.

Year 9

On arriving in Year 9 students will continue with their study of French and learn either German or Spanish as their second modern foreign language. If parents/carers have a strong preference with regard to the second language then they are invited to indicate this on the transfer document from middle schools. The KS3 curriculum has been created to enable students to develop skills and linguistic competence within a range of common topic areas. Students are taught in mixed ability groups and assessed in the four language skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing, as well as given an insight into the cultures and civilisations of those countries where the language is spoken.

GCSE

At Key Stage 4 students have the opportunity to continue with one or both languages through to GCSE.

In Years 10 and 11 students are working towards their GCSE qualifications and these will be terminally assessed in the four language skills of listening, reading, speaking and writing at the end of the course in Year 11. These four skills are tested in a variety of theme areas which are taught during the GCSE course and started in the final term of year 9. Both the French and Spanish departments use the Edexcel examination board whilst the German department uses the AQA examination board.

A level

We are proud to be able to offer all three languages at A level. French and Spanish use the Edexcel examination board whilst German uses AQA. Both specifications are designed to make language learning enjoyable and stimulating whilst rewarding advanced research and knowledge of the culture.

Additional opportunities

The faculty offers a range of cultural experiences abroad designed to develop students’ linguistic skills, independence and social interaction. The French department runs an immersion trip to Rouen where students stay with host families and is open to students in years 10-13. Students in years 9-13 who study Spanish have the opportunity to visit Malaga and the highly successful German Exchange visit takes place in Bavaria where students in years 9-12 have the opportunity to stay with a host family and welcome the same partner back to England later in the same year.