Our communicative approach enables students to express their thoughts and feelings as well as transactional language in both French and German in a variety of tenses. As they progress, they move from word to sentence to text level and develop a deeper understanding of the languages by exploring grammar and discussing common misconceptions.
Our curriculum enables students to be able to communicate their thoughts and feelings as well as transactional language in a variety of tenses. As they move through the curriculum, they move from word, to sentence, to text level and develop a deeper understanding of how the language works by exploring grammar and the use of phonics as well as common misconceptions in vocabulary, pronunciation, and translation.
The curriculum gives equal weighting to Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing and allows students to practise these skills regularly in lessons and independently. We believe in depth before breadth when teaching language and grammar principles. The year 9 curriculum is designed to explicitly build on, retrieve and interleave the knowledge and skills already developed in years 7 and 8 and to prepare students for GCSE. In particular, we focus on three tenses and high-frequency vocabulary throughout KS3, reflecting both the current and the future GCSE programme (teaching due to start from 2024).
The topics we teach across the curriculum are relevant to both the students’ areas of interest as well as the necessary structures, vocabulary and grammar needed to make progress in language acquisition and so the curriculum is engaging as well as challenging.
We keep our curriculum updated in a variety of different ways driven by robust academic research. Our language gurus include Rachel Hawkes, GianFranco Conti, Martine Pillette and Steve Smith, all of whom have contributed significantly to the best practice behind the teaching of MFL. We believe in the constant cycle of improvement and are flexible about making changes to our curriculum after each academic year, after reflecting on the successes and weaknesses of curriculum implementation and after a thorough analysis of pupils’ results throughout the academic year.
· We place a high value on the use of L2 in the classroom
· Students must have lots of opportunity to practise orally, both in a tightly structured fashion which is teacher led and through communication with other students. They need to repeat and recycle as much language as possible
· Equal weighting for L, S, R, W but taught primarily in that order
· Independent learning outside the classroom is key to rapid progress
· Focus on high frequency words and do not expose students to too much language at once
· Be prepared to explain how the language works with an emphasis on explicit teaching of rules with practice.
· Use reading and listening activities to model good language use rather than to test. Focus on the process not the result
· Research suggests negative feedback can improve acquisition – be prepared to sensitively correct students and get them to respond to feedback
· Translation is a useful tool that should be used regularly but for short-targeted activities
· There should be a significant focus on the L2 culture to broaden student outlook and increase motivation.
The KS3 WGS Baccalaureate activities for the German subject Award
The KS3 WGS Baccalaureate activities for the German subject Award
The KS3 WGS Baccalaureate activities for the German subject Award
German GCSE revision resources
· Family and Society
· Festivals and Traditions
· Youth Culture
· The digital world
· Art and Architecture
· Berlin
· AS grammar (see AQA syllabus for a list of grammar at AS)
More detail on the A level curriculum
· Integration/exclusion
· Unemployment
· Politics
· New technology
· Medical progress
· Environment
· Literature and arts
· A2 grammar (see OCR syllabus for a list of A2 grammar)
German A level revision resources
September 2025
