Calendar
Year 8 Induction Day (No Transport)
Year 8 and Year 12 (No transport)
All students return
Mid-Term
Staff development day (no students)
Christmas Holidays ( school ends for pupils @ 11.45) (students return 7th Jan 2025)
Modern Foreign Languages
The College provides opportunity to study French and Spanish to GCSE level.
French:
This is a two year course with examinations at the end of Year 12.
Pupils will be tested in four skills:
Reading: Foundation or Higher -set and marked by AQA. Worth 20%
Listening: Foundation or Higher -set and marked by AQA. Worth 20%
Speaking: Controlled assessment (internally assessed). Conducted and marked by own teacher, two tasks to be submitted for moderation by AQA. Worth 30%
Writing: Controlled assessment (externally assessed and moderated ).This will take the form of 2 essays set by the teacher, written during Years 11 and 12. Worth 30%
In Listening and Reading there will be two tiers of assessment. Foundation (G-C) and Higher (D-A*). Speaking and Writing will be un-tiered.
In Year 11 we study 4 units on subjects such as Health, Relationships, Free Time, The Media and Holidays.
In Year 12 we study a further 4 units on subjects such as Home and Local Area, School, Environment and Future Plans.
Why should you choose this subject?
This is a very useful subject if you like travelling and meeting new people. In today’s society we meet people from all over the world and it is valuable to be able to speak their language. Also, in general, this subject has a high percentage of pupils gaining a Grade A*-C.
Every year there are opportunities to go on school visits. Last year a group of Year 11 pupils went to St. George’ market in Belfast where they had the opportunity to practise their French and Spanish speaking skills and to learn about European lifestyle and culture.
Assessment Objectives and Weightings
Most employers judge languages to be very useful and those who operate across Europe may see it as a necessity and therefore you would be more likely to get a job with that company if you spoke another language. If you intend going to university, most courses now have one module of language studies, therefore you would already have a sound basic knowledge if you had a GCSE. You could even choose to spend a year in France as part of your studies.
