In KS3 and 4 we are currently using The Nelson Thornes Online Textbook and
Kerboodle resources alongside our own VLE. The Sixth Form French groups use
...
Department of Modern Foreign Languages
The Department is part of the MFL and Expressive Arts Faculty, which includes, in addition to French German and Spanish, the curriculum areas of Music and Physical Education. All three subject teams are led by Curriculum Leaders. In Years 7 and 8 all girls learn French and either German or Spanish in our two year Key Stage 3. In Year 9 girls can choose to continue with one of their languages or with both. All students take at least one language at GCSE, which, for some students this year, was completed in Year 10. In Year 11 some of these students have been undertaking preparation work for A Level while others have been consolidating their achievement in GCSE languages. At GCSE we follow the AQA specification. We also run a lunchtime Russian club. French and German are both offered at AS/A2 in Years 12 and 13, with groups including students from other local schools where languages are not offered at A Level. The first cohort of students who were offered Spanish in Year 7 are now in Year 10 and it is likely, should there be enough demand, that Spanish will be offered at AS when this group reaches Year 12. We currently have healthy numbers of students in the Sixth Form following the AQA specification. The school has very high academic standards and excellent results are obtained in public examinations. A very high proportion of our students continue into Higher Education. Last year one girl gained a place at Oxford to read French and Arabic and another gained a place at Cambridge to read German and Spanish. One girl in the present Year 13 group has been offered a place to read French and Russian at Cambridge. In KS3 and 4 we are currently using The Nelson Thornes Online Textbook and Kerboodle resources alongside our own VLE. The Sixth Form French groups use A Touts but also have access to Kerboodle Resources. All staff have their own laptop and we also have subscriptions to several languages websites. We believe that we have developed and are continuing to develop successful strategies to increase student participation and to foster greater independence and spontaneity while maintaining high standards of accuracy in both written and oral work. We are fortunate in being able to share two Foreign Language Assistants with neighbouring schools. We have a suite of four new classrooms, which all have network connections and projectors. In addition to this, all year groups have individual access to netbook computers which are widely used in MFL lessons. The school has a long-standing German exchange with Skipton's twin town, Simbach, which is in Bavaria. This exchange for Year 10 students is a joint venture between our school and Ermysted's, the neighbouring boys' grammar school. In addition to this, during the same exchange period, A Level German Students can undertake a short period of Work Experience. We have also recently established a work experience exchange visit with a new partner school in Douai in France which is targeted at Key Stage 4 and 5 students. The next group of students plan to visit France next October. Additionally, we are also fortunate enough to be able to offer an Exchange for year 9 students to Madrid in Spain. Students usually visit Spain in May with Spanish students visiting Skipton shortly afterwards. In the past three years Spanish girls from our partner school have joined Year 9 for half a term in September.
Skipton Girls’ High School, Gargrave Road, Skipton, North Yorkshire, BD23 1QL Tel: 01756 707600 Fax: 01756 701068 Email:
[email protected] Skipton Girls’ High School Academy Trust – Company Number: 7553531
