Key Stage 3
All Year 7 students begin with learning French and then have the opportunity to switch and begin learning German in Year 8. We aim to instil a love of learning languages, whilst ensuring essential language skills are taught and understood. Learning is centred around a key set of grammar features that we want students to truly master. These features are taught every term, but in different contexts, so that students learn how to build their language learning skills based on solid grammatical foundations. Our lessons are supported with resources from Clic 1 (French) and Echo Express (German) as well as regular use of ipads and mini whiteboards to enhance learning. Students in Years 7 and 8 are provided with a vocabulary and grammar booklet; regular spelling tests test this vocabulary knowledge. We also subscribe to www.linguascope.com which allows students to practise vocabulary through audio and visual games.
Year 7 contexts: Family life, School life, Town life
Year 8 contexts: Daily life, Healthy life, Cultural life
Key Stage 4
The 3-year GCSE course begins with a half term of embedding key grammar concepts to ensure that students have a solid grounding. We then follow the AQA GCSE course with these units and topics, using www.kerboodle.com and www.vocabexpress.com to support learning.
Unit 1 – Relationships (family and marriage)
Unit 2 – Social media and mobile technology
Unit 3 – Film, TV, Hobbies
Unit 3 – Sport, Food
End of year exams (Units 1-3 only)
Unit 4 – Festivals and traditions
Unit 5 – Home and local area
Unit 6 – Voluntary work & Health issues
|Unit 7 – Environment & Social issues||
Unit 8 – Travel & Tourism
End of year exams (Units 1-6 only)
Unit 9/10 – School
Unit 11/12 – Careers
April – GCSE speaking exams
May – French GCSE exams
June – German GCSE exams
Students learn how to develop their writing and speaking skills so that they can communicate with a greater degree of accuracy and sophistication, whilst broadening their vocabulary knowledge and comprehension skills. Final assessment takes place at the end of Year 11 with an equal weighting between skills: Listening (25%), Speaking (25%), Reading (25%) and Writing (25%).
Creating interest in languages
We encourage interest in languages by:
- Running an annual Year 7 Spelling Bee competition and taking students to represent Putteridge High School at the Luton Schools Languages Festival.
- Taking our students into our feeder schools to teach languages. We have previously taught classes in French, German, Portuguese, Italian, and held International Languages Fairs showcasing languages, such as, Spanish, Bengali, Russian, Hungarian, Lithuanian, Chinese, Japanese, Romanian, Urdu and Arabic.
- Taking students on residential visits and visits to higher education and inter-school events that broaden their minds. We have recently attended the following events:
- Luton Schools Languages Festival @ LSFC (Year 7)
- ISLMA Modern Languages Conference @ St Albans High School for Girls (Year 11)
- Why Learn Languages? Outreach event @ Magdalene College, Cambridge University (Year 9/10)
- Business Language Challenge @ Icknield High School with University of East Anglia (Year 9)
- German Exchange with the Theisstalschule, Niedernhausen (Year 7-10)
- 4-day visit to Vienna (Year 8-11)
- Facilitating email, letter and student exchanges with our partner schools in Belley, France and Niedernhausen, Germany, which was initially established by our first successful Comenius project (2013-2015). Students travelled to both schools, produced a tri-lingual magazine and performed in a tri-lingual production, based on the theme of migration and immigration.