At Bishop Barrington we value the opportunities that language learning can bring and aim to provide excellent teaching and learning in a secure environment where all pupils can reach their potential. Ofsted praised our success in 2003, stating:
Pupils at Bishop Barrington currently study either French or German at Key Stage 3 and they can opt to continue at GCSE. The learning in each year is divided into Modules, which gives pupils a clear sense of what they are learning and how it fits into the "bigger picture" of learning a language. It also helps pupils take charge of their own learning and reflect on their progress in the language and their Level, whilst enabling us to monitor their learning and development. An end of Module test approximately every eight weeks also gives the pupils a chance to more formally show what they have achieved.
Levels are awarded throughout the Key Stage. We welcome the language learning skills that many of our students have acquired at primary school and have created a transition project to develop their prior skill base into more formally level-assessed learning. They then progress quickly and can hope to be on a comparative level with other subjects by the end of Key Stage 3. All pupils are encouraged to record the level they have reached for reading, writing, listening and speaking and then set themselves targets as to how they can reach the next stage. Formative marking further informs this and so students can be sure that they have the next steps for their own progress.
Homework in languages is often learning of vocabulary and key structures for sentence building. It is very important that learning by heart is taken seriously as this is crucial for progression.
At Bishop Barrington, we know that the way to learn a language is in a secure and supportive environment. We therefore expect behaviour to be excellent in all classes and the learning to be fun! In 2006 Ofsted stated that "Pupils enjoy the subject, behave well in class, and carry out their work responsibly."
When we welcome students in year 7 to Bishop Barrington, we maximise all the language learning skills they have acquired at primary school by embarking on a carefully designed transition project. This project revises prior learning in a new context and incorporates all the support and differentiation necessary for students for whom language learning was not on the primary curriculum. Our aim is to make languages teaching and learning as fully interactive as possible and build pupils’ confidence through speaking, listening, reading and writing skills.
This unit of work has as its focus a snapshot of life for the students now that they are secondary school students. This includes introducing themselves, describing a new friend, talking about their new school, describing and giving their opinions on their new school uniform, their new subjects as well as their interests outside of school and their daily routine. Other essentials of language learning, such as sound-spelling link, pronunciation, alphabet and numbers, key texts and grammatical structure are begun in this module and obviously continued and developed throughout the Key Stage.
This unit then builds on the solid foundations laid in unit 1 and concentrates still within the students’ area of experience; this time where they live. Students will learn how to talk about their own homes and towns, giving their opinions and comparing with other towns in the French speaking world. They are also given the creative challenge of imagining their ideal homes and developing their linguistic awareness by exploring the conditional tense.
A light hearted and culturally rich end to this first exciting year of language learning introduces our students to the gastric delights of France! We discuss students’ own eating habits, then progress into cultural habits and differences of food and drink in other countries. This unit of work develops research and presentation skills, which are all crucial in successful language learning.
During this year, pupils build on the language skills acquired in year 7 and increase their vocabulary and knowledge and understanding of grammar and language structures in the following areas:
In this unit of work students discuss families and home life in more depth and explore the grammatical points of adjectival agreements and present tense verbs.
Students are introduced to the past tense through the topic area of free time and hobbies. We focus on extending and linking sentences and opinions.
Arranging to go out and making excuses is the perfect topic for exploring modal verbs and this unit also concentrates on clothing and shopping where recap of core transactional vocabulary and phrases is paramount.
Through the topic of friends we explore the future tense, providing students with the opportunity to cope with all three time frames.
Year 9 is aimed towards preparing pupils for the GCSE course in years 10 and 11 and draws together learning from the previous two years. Particular emphasis is placed on being able to manipulate verbs and tenses so that the highest Levels can be reached. The year outline is as follows:
We study the topic of media with the students and explore their interests in television, cinema, music and reading. We consolidate knowledge of the present and past tenses. The students watch a French film and are guided how to write a film review.
Health and fitness, illness and injuries, healthy living advice are the areas of experience studied in this unit of work.
We imagine our futures in this unit, encouraging students to use the real as well as immediate future tense. Future plans, careers and hopes are explored along with specific focus on the values of language learning for their futures.
Suspense and intrigue is the aim in this section as students work to solve a crime by exploring the imperfect tense and revive descriptions and opinions. Extended reading and listening for a purpose are skills developed here.
At key stage 4 all students on the EBACC pathway study French. We use the Edexcel exam board and guide our students to achieve the very best in the controlled speaking and writing tasks, worth 60% of the final grade and completed at regular intervals, when appropriate, throughout the key stage. Simultaneously we are thoroughly preparing all students for the listening and reading exams which can be taken during the summer exam season of year 10 and year 11. Students can be assessed at either Foundation or Higher Level in the skill-areas of listening and reading. This decision is made jointly with students and their parents and ourselves. The controlled speaking and writing sections are untiered.
We bring together all the prior learning from key stage 3 and follow a carefully constructed course which revises and deepens the students’ knowledge and understanding of grammatical structures and language through the topic areas of:
Personal information, general interests, school life and future plans, the local environment, the world of work, travel and tourism.
We fully understand the value of additional support for our students for success at GCSE languages and offer weekly individual and small group extra curricular support to all of our students. We have excellent relationships with parents and rely on their support and encouragement in helping their sons and daughters attend extra session and listen to them practising at home.