Chetwynde School, Croslands, Rating Lane, Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, LA13 0NY

01229 824210

info@chetwynde.cumbria.sch.uk

Chetwynde School

Respect, Responsibility, Resilience

How we teach French at Chetwynde:

How We Teach French at GCSE:

How we support learning at home:

Highlights from the French Trip:

Modern Foreign Languages

Vision and Values:

We in modern foreign languages aim to instil enthusiasm and passion for life-long language learning and to promote the values of tolerance and understanding of other cultures that language-learning can bring. Communication, understanding, tolerance and respect are at the heart of our curriculum.

We value enabling students to acquire the skills to communicate effectively in French and German, helping them to understand and compare the structure of other languages and other cultures with our own, and encouraging tolerance of and respect for people with different languages, cultures and beliefs. We aim to inspire students to want to continue to study French and German and to learn new languages and to experience the sense of freedom and confidence that being able to communicate in another language brings.

  • Our vision is commitment to becoming an outstanding faculty and sustaining this by living our values on a daily basis:
  • We will provide fun, exciting and inspiring lessons that allow every student to achieve their full academic potential;
  • We will seek to develop innovative learning methods that make the ‘MFL experience’ engaging and thought provoking;
  • We will support students in their moral and spiritual development, their cultural awareness and provide them with an opportunity to reflect on the challenging issues of our world;
  • We will promote an atmosphere of mutual trust and we hope to inspire students to always give their best, to get involved, and to explore their opinions and those of others with courtesy and respect.
  • We will encourage students to meet and then exceed their academic and personal targets, providing them with appropriate opportunities to do so.

The MFL Faculty also actively promotes essential British values, and the universal values of good global citizenship: democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect and tolerance of others. In learning another language pupils gain a broader outlook, understanding and respect for difference and diversity.

Curriculum

At KS3 (Years 7-9) students are taught in mixed ability form groups.

Students follow a skills-based course using National Curriculum guidelines for the basis of the Schemes of Work.

In Year 7 the focus is on learning greetings, exchanging personal information, the present tense of regular and irregular verbs. Pupils learn to express opinions on a variety of topics such as food and drink, sports and school subjects. They start to use connectives and time phrases to make their communication more interesting. They study a film and some short stories and are encouraged to write creatively eg a short poem or story

In Year 8 pupils learn to describe where they live and their friends in more detail, to talk about holidays and clothes, German and French festivals and daily life. They learn to talk about past and future events as well as the present and to give reasons for their opinions.  They study a film and short stories and are encouraged to write creatively as well as factually- poems and short stories.

In Year 9 pupils learn more about the variety of people of different cultures living in France and Germany and some historical facts e.g. The First and Second World Wars and how they affected France and Germany. They develop grammar skills by learning the imperfect tense. They learn to describe their school in more detail and to compare it with French and German schools, to discuss whether school rules are useful and to consider healthy eating.

In Years 10 and 11 pupils follow the AQA GCSE course (currently Edexcel but changing in 2016). They learn to discuss their identity and culture, including social media and comparing customs; local, national and global areas of interest, including social and global issues like the environment; current and future study and employment. They further develop the grammar and communication skills necessary to speak and write in French and German.

Extracurricular Opportunities:

There are a number of trips and enriching opportunities to look forward to as part of the study of MFL. These are ever expanding but include:

Languages film club on Thursday lunchtimes

Languages lending library for films, novels, and magazines.

Years 8-9: intensive French week in Normandy, involving activities like climbing and fencing in French plus a visit to World War 2 sites.

Year 10: 3 day cultural and language visit to Paris.