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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 ole 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. 

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.