Modern Foreign Languages
At Ruislip High School we aim to foster students’ curiosity for, and understanding of, different languages. By learning French, Spanish and/or Latin, students build confidence and resilience and broaden their horizons in every sense, including improving their prospects for adult life.
Key Stage 3
Students begin to understand, speak, read and write in either French or Spanish. They become familiar with the sounds, written form and grammar of the language, and use this knowledge with increasing confidence and competence to express themselves in role-plays, conversations and writing. They improve their understanding of the language by listening to people talking about different subjects and by reading a range of texts.
A love of learning is instilled through a range of interactive activities making challenging concepts such as conjugation accessible and fun. Authentic resources such as literary texts, videos and songs, as well as cultural projects, will be exploited to develop linguistic ability and cultural awareness of the target language speaking countries.
Typical topics that students cover in KS3 are as follows:
Year 7
Introducing themselves, classroom language and the gender of nouns.
Talking about pets and family, describing themselves and others, and adjective agreements.
Describing their house and evening routine. Saying what hobbies they have and telling the time. The use of present tense verbs and prepositions and using the verb "to go" to refer to future events.
Talking about their school subjects and expressing opinions.
Year 8
Free-time activities, sports and playing musical instruments.
Talking about what they did last weekend and in the holidays.
Arranging to go out with friends and shopping.
Talking about different meal-times.
Using the past, present and future tenses.
Year 9
Future plans.
Healthy living.
Things you like.
Films.
Children’s rights.
Holidays.
Using the past, present and future tenses.
Key Stage 4
At GCSE, students study five themes as prescribed by the Edexcel exam board, focusing on understanding and expressing descriptions and opinions. Grammatical knowledge is built upon providing reinforcement from KS3, alongside understanding and application of more complex structures and verb conjugation. Continual skill development will occur through the inclusion of the four key areas of listening, speaking, reading and writing.
The topics covered across all five themes are current and relevant issues which are important in the development of opinions about the world they live in. Authentic resources such as literary texts, videos and songs are exploited to develop linguistic ability and cultural awareness of the target language speaking countries.
Students benefit from working in small groups and individually with the French or Spanish Language Assistant to develop listening and speaking confidence and fluency.
Modules covered in Year 10 and Year 11 include:
- Myself and other people
- Leisure and free-time
- Where I live
- Finding the way
- Shopping
- School life
- Holidays
- World of work
- Festivals
- Healthy living
- World issues
These modules are grouped into five themes as follows:
Theme 1 - Identity and Culture
Theme 2 - Local area, holiday and travel
Theme 3 - School
Theme 4 - Future aspirations, study and work
Theme 5 - International and global dimension
Examination Board
Edexcel French Specification:
https://qualifications.pearson.com/en/qualifications/edexcel-gcses/french-2016.html
Edexcel Spanish Specification:
https://qualifications.pearson.com/en/qualifications/edexcel-gcses/spanish-2016.html
% Components
End of Year 11 Formal Examinations:
25% Listening Examination
25% Speaking Examination
25% Reading Examination
25% Writing Examination
Extra-Curricular Activities
MFL offers the following extra-curricular activities:
French Club
Spanish Club
Year 9 History/French trip to Belgian Battlefields and Paris
Year 10 Barcelona trip (biennial)