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    MFL

    FACULTY LEADER: Mrs J Barber

    The Modern Foreign Languages curriculum at Prince Henry's is rich and varied, reflecting the important r Two students using dice in language lessonole languages and the school’s global ethos play in the curriculum. The team of nine highly skilled members of staff is supported by native speaker Foreign Language Assistants and the faculty is accommodated in a specialist suite of rooms. All staff are dual linguists, and many are trilingual. Courses in French, Spanish, German and Mandarin Chinese are offered through the curriculum; however, each year the faculty also supports a small group of students wishing to take exams in their heritage languages.

    Languages are an important part in the life of Prince Henry’s and play a key role in developing the international ethos of our students. With the numerous trips, visits and exchanges organised by the faculty, both at home and abroad, students are given opportunities to meet a range of native speakers and put their language skills to good use. In a normal year, we would usually host nearly 100 international visitors in school from visiting schools, who have all been in lessons and worked alongside our students, enhancing their cultural capital and allowing them to put their linguistic skills to good use.

    With staff from the faculty working in many of our local feeder primary schools, links for transition are strong and help students to settle quickly into KS3 MFL lessons. Many of our students choose to become dual linguists when they come to select their options in KS4, and we have numerous former students studying a range of languages at universities, as well as working or studying abroad as part of their studies. 

     Chinese exhange students with banner in front of lower school

    KS3 Curriculum

    In Year 7, students usually build upon their prior language learning in French or Spanish, as appropriate. These are the two core languages and all students continue to study the same language throughout KS3 and KS4. In Year 8, all students take up German as their second MFL. In addition, all Year 8 students follow a short module in Mandarin Chinese which they can then continue in after-school lessons from Year 9.

    In Year 7, students are taught in mixed ability groups until Christmas and are then banded, based on teacher assessments and end of module tests. From Year 8, students are set by ability based on end of module tests / progress throughout the year and teacher assessment.

    SPANISH Term 1 Term 2 Term 3

     

    Year 7

    Introducing myself

    My free time activities

    The weather

    My sporting activities

    My school

    My family

    My home and my town

    Ordering in a café

    My plans for the weekend

     

    Year 8

    A past holiday

    Technology

    Music

    Television

    Food and drink

    Arranging to go out

    Fashion

    Holiday plans

    Asking for directions

     

    Year 9

    Things I like

    Cinema

    Jobs and careers

    Healthy lifestyle

    Illness

    Children's rights

    Our environment

    Staying with a Spanish family

    Shopping for souvenirs

    KS3 Spanish Learning Journey.

    FRENCH Term 1 Term 2 Term 3

     

    Year 7

    Introducing myself

    Describing myself and others

    My school

    My sporting activities

    My other free time activities

    Life at home

    My local area

    Ordering in a café

    Talking about future plans

     

    Year 8

    A past holiday

    Festivals and celebrations

    Food and drink

    Future school trips

    TV / cinema preferences

    Leisure activities

    Future school trips

    TV / cinema preferences

    Leisure activities

     

    Year 9

    Free time and friends

    Birthday celebrations

    What you're going to wear

    Future work plans

    Life in the future

    What life was like in the past

    Food drink

    The environment

    The francophone world

    KS3 French Learning Journey.

    GERMAN Term 1 Term 2 Term 3

     

    Year 8

    Introductions

    The things I like

    My life with my family

    My free time

    My life online

    School life

    Local Area + Cologne

    Buying snacks and shopping

    Future holiday plans

     

    Year 9

    Holidays

    Innsbruck and Hamburg

    Films and TV preferences

    Reading and media

    Food and healthy living

    Daily Routines

    Directions

    Meeting up with others

    Fairtrade and German labels

    KS3 German Learning Journey.

    KS4 Curriculum

    Prince Henry’s is pleased to be able to offer all three languages at GCSE and A Level. At GCSE, in French and Spanish students are allocated to a set according to ability. German is taught in mixed ability groups for those students who have chosen to take German as an additional language for GCSE. All three languages follow the AQA GCSE course.

    KS4 French Learning Journey.

    KS4 German Learning Journey.

    KS5 Curriculum

    Prince Henry’s is pleased to be able to offer all three languages A Level. At Key Stage 5, all three subjects are offered with additional support and individual/small group lessons with our Foreign Language Assistants.

    Assessment

    From Key Stage 3 onwards, little and often low stakes testing is integral to all lessons in MFL. From the instantaneous pieces of short verbal feedback on work in lessons, the correction of pronunciation in spoken answers and the ongoing feedback and monitoring of progress through the marking of classwork, longer written/spoken tasks and end of module assessments; assessment is used in a wide variety of ways to help embed knowledge and shape the next steps in the teaching and learning process.

    In Key Stage 4, the students are working towards the summative assessments of AQA GCSEs and the structure of the course books around which our courses are taught, provides a mixed range of assessment as learning opportunities as well as formative end of module assessments based on the topics, vocabulary and skills that the students have been studying. Exam style questions are fully integrated into lessons and assessments in Key Stage 4 to help prepare students for the GCSE exams.

    Please see the Key Stage 4 Options and Sixth Form pages for details of the KS4 and KS5 courses offered by the MFL faculty. 

    Enrichment

    The MFL faculty organises a wide programme of foreign visits and exchanges, including trips to France, Spain, Germany and China. Each year, the faculty typically takes away between 250 and 300 students to these countries.

    We are especially proud that our range of trips and visits allows all students to be offered the opportunity to travel to France, Germany or Spain in their first year of learning the language. For further details, see our Trips Abroad page.