A Day in the Life of the Modern Foreign Languages Department

The day starts early, with some of our French teachers arriving at 7.20am to prepare for GCSE early morning French sessions. The sessions run from 8am – 8.40am and allow Y10 and Y11 students to take an additional GCSE. The course is more intensive than normal timetabled French lessons, with the GCSE content delivered over 2 hours 40 mins per fortnight, rather than 5 hours per fortnight.

At 8.40am, some MFL teachers head to their tutor groups, while others carry out admin and plan for the day ahead.  Admin tasks mostly revolve around marking and planning. This has been a particularly heavy task this academic year, with a new curriculum and assessment framework introduced by the government for both French and German. After attending several training sessions, the team have had to re-plan every lesson, assessment, mock exam etc, to fit the new framework. Our current Y11 students are the first cohort to complete their GCSEs under the new system.

Across all year groups, in both French and German, a typical lesson begins with a retrieval task. In Y9, this will usually focus on vocabulary, whereas Y10 and Y11 are more likely to focus on tenses. In each lesson, at least two of the four skill sections are covered – reading, writing, listening and speaking. In Y9, speaking games and sentence builders are used to improve students’ fluency and confidence; if you’re a Y9 parent, ask your child about the ‘One Pen, One Dice’ game! At GCSE level, students are seated with a ‘speaking partner’ they are comfortable with, as conversation becomes a more integral part of the learning.

Throughout the year, Y10 and Y11 students sit mock exams ahead of the main GCSE exams. There’s a lot to co-ordinate here, as the four skills are examined separately. Reading and writing exams take place in normal examination rooms alongside other subjects, but listening and speaking exams require additional planning.

Listening exams are held in the MFL classrooms, as the rooms are carpeted which helps with the sound, both inside and outside of the room.  Speaking exams require the most logistics! Two rooms are allocated to each teacher – one exam room where students take their exams one-to-one with their teacher, and one preparation room where up to three students can prepare for their exam. The schedule includes four exams per period, so up to 20 individual exams per day. All speaking exams are recorded then sent to an external examiner for marking.

After school, revision sessions are offered in both languages – every Wednesday for French, every Friday for German. During the Easter holidays, French and German teachers offer additional sessions to help students prepare for their speaking exams, which take place shortly after the Easter break. In the past, when required, MFL staff have also offered additional lunchtime support for GCSE students, including quick-fire tenses practice and additional speaking practice for students who feel particularly nervous about the speaking element of the assessment.

Outside of the curriculum, every Thursday lunchtime, the MFL department runs the Languages of the World Club, which introduces students to languages they may never have tried before. Languages featured so far include Spanish, Italian, Welsh, Gujarati, Arabic, Turkish and British Sign Language.

MFL students are also offered incredible opportunities to travel, with residential trips for both German and French students. Y9 German students enjoy a trip to Rhineland around Easter and there is also a trip to Paris in July, which is open to French students in all year groups which don’t have exams.  And each year, our A Level French students enjoy a trip to London to immerse themselves in the French culture in South Kensington.

Our MFL team put so much time and effort into providing positive learning experiences for our students; you can’t help but notice the vibrant atmosphere when you’re passing through the department.