Languages

Bonjour, Guten Tag, Hola!

Did you know that French is an official language in 29 countries and is spoken around the world by around 128 million people as first or second language? Or that German is the most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union and is spoken by approximately 100 million native speakers and also by about 80 million non-native speakers? Did you know that approximately 406 million people speak Spanish as a native language, making it second only to Mandarin in terms of its number of native speakers worldwide?

French, Spanish and German are taught by a dynamic and enthusiastic team of three native specialist educators using stimulating techniques.

Pupils have the option to learn 2 of the 3 languages from Year 3 in Prep and Senior schools.

We are firm believers in teaching languages from an early age, which allows them to develop and improve as they progress through the school. Pupils have pen friends and are encouraged to correspond regularly with them. We hold a termly KS2 Modern Foreign Language assembly in which pupils learn about other cultures.

French: In French, we use the course book "Studio" in KS3 and KS4 and we follow the Edexcel syllabus for GCSE.  Our pupils have the opportunity to take trips abroad, for example we visited Paris in June 2011 and Northern France in June 2013.

German: Work in German is enhanced by cross-curricular projects with modules on chocolate, fashion and The East German State from 1945 to 1989, with a focus on the Berlin Wall.   We use the Stimmt course book which is then followed by the Edexcel course book.  Our trips abroad have included the very popular Christmas Markets tour and Senior school journeys to Berlin.

Spanish: We teach Spanish across the Prep and Senior School up to GCSE.  This popular subject uses the course book "Viva" for KS3 and KS4. Each year, students attend a trip to a Spanish restaurant. We also run a trip to Barcelona for KS3 and KS4 pupils.