DepartmentsMFLModern Foreign Languages at St Augustine’s
Mr J L Collin BA (Hons), DEM, MEd - Team Leader
Mr A Pearce BA
Mrs C Byrne TA and French Assistante
All students study French at KS3 and they are grouped in broad ability sets and all groups, apart from Year 9 Set 3, follow the Equipe Nouvelle course published by OUP. Each stage of this course is divided into six topics or units of study and we aim to cover one unit every half term.
Students are assessed regularly and formal assessments are conducted at the end of each term in all four skills; speaking, listening and understanding, reading and understanding and writing, based upon the 2 units of work for that term
Students in every year group are expected to provide themselves with:
· a ring binder for storing worksheets in and
· a French dictionary.
· They are also required to pay towards the cost of the Workbook which accompanies the course, which, because they are meant to be written in, cannot therefore be re-used.
These workbooks, one for each of the 3 stages of the course, form the main homework resource both for written and for learning homeworks, as well as a revision aid throughout the Key Stage.
Assett Languages
All pupils currently study French in Year 7, 8 and 9 but only a small proportion go on to study a foreign language at KS4. The majority of our students therefore leave with nothing to show for the time they have spent learning a foreign language.
Under a new scheme being offered by OCR, one of the main examination boards, we intend to offer our pupils regular opportunities to show what they have learned by undertaking as series of graded assessments, set by us and marked in school, as and when they are ready. The assessments are certificated by the school and validated by OCR. Each assessment is based on a series of “can-do” statements and represents one step on a ladder which can take the student through his/her schooling and all the way to university.
Along the way, once they have completed a certain number of rungs on the ladder, students can also opt to do external assessments, set and marked by the Examinations Board. These assessments are certificated and nationally recognized and students can climb back on the ladder at any time to continue their progress towards higher qualifications.
We aim to start doing some assessments with Years 7 and 8 before the end of the year and integrate them fully into our curriculum next year. We hope that this scheme will not only provide students with evidence of what they have achieved at school but also act as a motivational device to spur them on to greater things.
Through the Specialist Schools Trust we have set up a link with a secondary school in Paris. It’s the Collège Guillaume Budé and it’s situated in the north-east of Paris in the 19th Arrondissement, just off the Porte des Lilas Metro line, near to La Place des Fêtes and not far from the Parc de la Villette where the Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie is situated. The school’s website is: http://clg-guillaume-bude.scola.ac-paris.fr/
Some students from the school were on a visit to England earlier this term and a group of Year 10 students met up with them in Bath for the day. Mr Pearce’s replacement next year, Mrs Cannon, will be hoping to develop this link further.
|
