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Modern Foreign Languages Department

Bienvenue, Willkommen, Bienvenido!
At St Hilda’s we are very proud of our pupils’ excellent achievements in MFL.

What we teach

• We offer French to all pupils in Year 7, and then in the February of Year 7, pupils opt for either German or Spanish as well.
• Pupils then have the option of continuing to GCSE. Most of our students opt to take one language, with some choosing to do two.
• In addition, we are happy to offer French, German and Spanish to A Level.

What our pupils say
“I really enjoy languages at St Hilda’s because you are always supported by the teachers and classmates\”

 

European Day of Languages 2019

This is an important event held in school each year. To view a PDF document illustrating some of the many interesting events that took place, please click here.

 

German

German is offered from February in Year 7 through to A Level.

Extracurricular activities:
We are enthusiastic about language learning and endeavour to make the process as real, exciting and personal as possible:

We learn about the peoples and culture of the German-speaking countries, e.g. Christmas, Easter and Karneval activities, food preparation and tasting, learning traditional songs and poems.

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Partner schools

We have pen pal and skype links with our partner schools:

a. St Ursula Gymnasium, Attendorn

b. Georg Büchner Gymnasium, Cologne

We enjoy mutual visits with our friends in the partner schools, and are especially proud of our exchanges in Years 12 and 13.

This year, thanks to funding from the UK-German Connection, 6 of our Year 11 pupils are heading to Attendorn to celebrate the 100^th anniversary of St Ursula, along with pupils from Lithuania, Poland and Ireland.

Foreign Language Assistants

• We are lucky to employ a German assistant, who works with our pupils both in class, in small groups and in lunchtime clubs.
• Trips in recent years, we have been to the Cologne Christmas markets, organised joint trips with the History Department to Berlin and Cologne, and also visited Frau James’ home town of Munich.
• We offer school trips abroad to a variety of different locations. These are very popular and as well as being a valuable learning experience, they are also hugely enjoyable and highly motivating.

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Links with local universities

We regularly attend GCSE and A Level enrichment days at MMU and Liverpool University.

We enjoy particularly strong links with Liverpool University, who offer master classes to our pupils, the most recent of which was a translation workshop for Year 12 and 13. In addition, we benefit from welcoming their Languages degree students into St Hilda’s for work experience.

 

Years 7-9

Resources:

1. Textbooks: Stimmt! 1, Stimmt! 2.
2. Stimmt! 1 and 2 workbooks
3. Websites: http://www.linguascope.com, http://www.memrise.com/, http://www.quizlet.com/,   http://www.duolingo.com/, http://www.samlearning.com/.
4. Readers, Mary Glasgow magazines

 

GCSE

We follow the AQA GCSE German specification (8668)

Pupils then have the option of continuing their study to A Level.

Detailed specification is available at http://www.aqa.org.uk/subjects/languages/gcse/german-8668.

Textbooks used:

Stimmt! AQA GCSE German.

Further reading/resources:

1. CGP GCSE AQA German Complete Revision and Practice guide and workbook
2. Readers, Mary Glasgow magazines
3. Websites: http://www.linguascope.com/, http://www.memrise.com/, http://www.quizlet.com/,   http://www.duolingo.com/, www.ukgermanconnection.org/young-people, www.bbc.co.uk/languages/german, www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/german, http://www.languagesonline.org.uk/, http://www.samlearning.com/

 

A Level

We follow the Eduqas A Level German specification.

Detailed specification is available at http://www.eduqas.co.uk/qualifications/german/as-a-level/

Textbooks used:

AQA A Level German

Further reading/resources:

1. 1. 1. 1. AQA A Level German dynamic learning
         2. Zeitgeist 1 and 2, study guide, grammar book
         3. Goodbye Lenin (film, study guide)
         4. Der Vorleser by Bernhard Schlink (novel, study guide)
         5. Websites:

www.memrise.com

http://www.ukgermanconnection.org/

www.spiegel.dewww.bbc.co.uk/languages/german/

www.dw.de/learn-german/deutsch-interaktiv/s-9572

www.goethe.de/ins/gb/lon/prj/asa/top/hal/enindex.htm

www.deutschseite.de/inhalt.html

http://lyricstraining.com

www.news-und-trends.de

http://www.kindernetz.de/knstartseite/start/-/id=4390/fq7oka/index.html

www.wdr.de/tv/neuneinhalb/aktuell/index.php5

www.tivi.de/fernsehen/logo/start/index.html

http://www.quizlet.com/

 

Spanish

General introduction

The Spanish department strives to make the learning process as enjoyable and authenic as possible. We try our best to ensure that all pupils have access to a range of resources and learning opportunities that will maximise their learning of the language and the culture of the Spanish-speaking world.

• We learn about the culture, society of Spain and Latin America gaining an appreciation of fiestas, traditions, typical food, literature and popular Hispanic music.

 

• Partner schools – We have pen pal and skype links with our partner schools a school in Madrid called \”IES Antonio Fraguas Forges\”.
• Foreign Language Assistants – We are lucky to employ a Spanish assistant, who works with our pupils both in class, in small groups and in lunchtime clubs.
• Trips in recent years, taken pupils on tours of the Costa Brava, Andalusia and Costa Verde, visiting a range of Spain’s major cities and the surrounding areas such as Barcelona, Santander, Bilbao, Girona, Seville, Granada, Valencia and the list goes on!
• We offer school trips abroad to a variety of different locations. These are very popular, and as well as being a valuable learning experience, they are also hugely enjoyable and highly motivating.

The gallery was not found!

Links with local universities

We regularly attend GCSE and A Level enrichment days at MMU and Liverpool University.

We enjoy particularly strong links with Liverpool University, who offer master classes to our pupils, the most recent of which was a translation workshop for Year 12 and 13. In addition, we benefit from welcoming their Languages degree students into St Hilda’s for work experience.

 

Years 7-9

Resources:

1. Textbooks: ¡Viva! 1, ¡Viva ! 2.
2. ¡Viva! 1 and 2 workbooks
3. Websites: http://www.linguascope.com/, http://www.memrise.com/, http://www.quizlet.com/,   http://www.duolingo.com/, http://www.samlearning.com/.
4. Readers, Mary Glasgow magazines

GCSE

We follow the AQA GCSE Spanish course.

Pupils then have the option of continuing their study to A Level.

Detailed specification is available at http://www.aqa.org.uk/subjects/languages/gcse/spanish.

Textbooks used:

¡Viva! AQA GCSE Spanish.

Further reading/resources:

1. CGP GCSE AQA Spanish Complete Revision and Practice guide and workbook
2. Readers, Mary Glasgow magazines
3. Websites: http://www.linguascope.com/, http://www.memrise.com/, http://www.quizlet.com/,   http://www.duolingo.com/, http://www.languagesonline.org.uk/, http://www.samlearning.com/.
4. http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/spanish/
5. http://www.acapela-group.com/text-to-speech-interactive-demo.html – Practise Spanish pronunciation (Excellent preparation for speaking tests!)
6. http://www.languagesonline.org.uk/ – Spanish Grammar Help

A Level

We follow the EDUQAS A Level Spanish course.

Detailed specification is available at http://www.eduqas.co.uk/qualifications/spanish/as-a-level/.

Textbooks used:

AQA A Level Spanish

Further reading/resources:

1. AQA A Level Spanish dynamic learning
2. Pans Labrynth (film, study guide)
3. Casa de Barnarda Alba (novel, study guide)

Websites:

http://memrise.com/ – for building vocab

http://www.quizlet.com/ – for learning vocab

http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/spanish/cool/ – offers short audio files with colloquial Spanish vocabulary on several topics.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/spanish/ – BBC website especially good for links to all major Spanish news, TV and radio sites

www.newsinslowspanish.com/- listening practise.

http://www.duolingo.com/ – for building and learning vocab

www.linguee.com/ – the best for contextualising new vocabulary

 

French

Introduction:

French is taught from Year 7 through to Year 13 in St Hilda’s.

We are lucky to count 2 French native teachers in our Department: Madame Lloyd and Madame Romat.

Extracurricular activities:

We offer regular end of year trips to France. We have been to a variety of destinations throughout the years including:

• Day trip to Boulogne
• Week-end in Lille, for the Christmas market
• 4 days trip to Arles, in Camargue (south-east France)
• 4 days trip to Strasbourg (in the Alsace region, Eastern France)
• School exchange to Avignon (Provence)
• 4 days trip to Normandie and Paris

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We also run a French cine club at lunchtime, open to Sixth-Formers and Year 11 pupils.

We take our pupils to cinema workshops organised by Manchester Metropolitan University yearly, in Home cinema in Manchester.

“Bande de Filles” by Celine Sciamma, the latest film we saw and analysed.

“Bande de Filles” by Celine Sciamma, the latest film we saw and analysed.

Years 7-9

Introduction

In Year 7, every pupil starts studying French in order to get a firm grounding in studying a foreign language. We divide our teaching in-between the 4 skills of Listening/ Speaking/ Reading and Writing equally.

• In Year 7, we start with “Acces Studio”, a book aiming at bridging the gap with Primary school French. We use the textbook and the interactive software in class. We then move on to Studio 1, published by Heinemann.
• In Year 8, we use Studio 2 vert and Studio 2 rouge according to the pupil’s ability.
• In Year 9, we use Studio 3 vert and rouge according to the pupils ‘ability.
• We also use the Studio workbooks for extra reading practice in each year.
• We offer the opportunity to order French Mary Glasgow magazines which contain topical and current short articles on the themes studied in class.

GCSE

At GCSE, we follow the AQA French full course for GCSE. This course is assessed at the end of Year 11, through examinations. For Speaking, the examination is conducted by the class French teacher.

Detailed specification is available at http://www.aqa.org.uk/subjects/languages/gcse/french-8658

We use the Studio textbook written by Clive bell and Anneli McLachlan and published by Pearson.

Further resources: pupils are given an opportunity to order the CGP examination practice book and grammar book at a discounted price.

Links with France

In Y10 all our pupils are paired up with a French penfriend, attending our partner school in Mont-de-Marsan, south west France. Last year, our French pen friends visited us and spent 2 days in school attending lessons and co-working on projects with their penfriends.

At A level, we prepare the full French A level course over 2 years, with the final examination in Year 13. We follow the AQA syllabus for French A level specifications 7652.

For detailed information on these specifications, follow the link:

http://www.aqa.org.uk/subjects/languages/as-and-a-level/french-7652/specification-at-a-glance

We use the Oxford University Press textbooks:

• AQA A level French Year 1, by Rob Pike, Colin Povey and Paul Shannon.
• AQA A level French Year 2, by Rob Pike, Colin Povey and Paul Shannon.

Alongside the textbooks, we use many reference grammar books such as:

• Heinemann A Level French Grammar practice
• AS and A2 grammar workbooks by Jean-Claude Gilles, OUP.

 

What our past pupils are doing now…..

Please click here to see what some of our past pupils are doing now (2019 update).

 

Where can LANGUAGES take you?