By studying a language at KES, our students will develop the ability to communicate with people from other countries and cultures. We equip our students with skills, knowledge and the confidence to use these to interact with people around the world alongside developing transferrable communication and interpersonal skills. Our aim is to inspire our students to become passionate about understanding different languages and cultures, giving them the confidence to explore a future both within and outside of their own culture and society.
| Globally Diverse | Ambitious for the Future | Inquisitive Learners |
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KES MFL students: ⮚ are exposed to other languages and cultures, and encouraged to step outside their ‘comfort zones’ to do so.
⮚ are open-minded, risk-takers and strong communicators
⮚ study target language culture and embrace diversity both within the target culture and their own |
KES MFL students: ⮚ understand the value of language learning both for future work and life experiences.
⮚ are provided with opportunities which will prepare them to become future global citizens.
⮚ understand the career paths studying languages can lead them to |
KES MFL students: ⮚ enjoy the challenge of learning a new language
⮚ develop the skills required to learn languages effectively and recognise the value of these skills in their other academic, vocational and more general life experiences.
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In Key Stage 3 students are taught either Spanish. We focus on explicitly teaching how to independently learn vocabulary and on building confidence through low risk oracy tasks within lessons. We aim to expose students to authentic materials from the target culture and offer the opportunity for penpal links with target language schools. Teachers share their own passion for the subject by sharing personal experiences and relevant interests.
We develop all four skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing) which are taught and used for every topic from Year 7 onwards. We aim to develop resilience in students by encouraging risk taking in lessons and explicitly teach that making mistakes is an important part of language learning. We teach students the value of knowing a foreign language for their future, whatever their career path may be and discuss careers in languages with students.
We explicitly study culture customs and festivals, for example studying how the Christmas period is celebrated differently in France/Spain. We also explore the differences in daily life - e.g. the school day, for students in the target culture and in the UK. We invite native speaking teenagers from a local language school into classrooms so students can meet and interact with peers from another culture and see they have many similarities.
In Key Stage 4 students have the opportunity to study either GCSE Spanish or GCSE French. Through this course we continue to embed our partnership with the language school for real world subject experience. We continue to explicitly teach how to independently learn vocabulary, which is transferable to all future learning and on building confidence through a wide variety of oracy tasks within lessons. We expose students to authentic materials from the target culture. We teach students the value of knowing a foreign language for their future, whatever their career path may be. We also discuss careers in languages with students as well as the benefits of further study in language and culture.
We invite native speaking teenagers from a local language school into classrooms so students can meet and interact with peers from another culture and see they have many similarities as well as discussing some differences. Students participate in a deeper study of target culture festivals and everyday life. The GCSE topic ‘Family, Friends and Relationships’ gives the opportunity to teach about different types of family and relationships in the target culture, promoting the global citizens of the future.
In Key Stage 5 we currently offer IB Italian for students to study, we study target culture in both target and native language. We expose students to authentic materials from the target culture. Teachers share their own passion for the subject by sharing personal experiences and relevant interests. We also work on understanding the principles of how languages and grammar work, to enhance knowledge of English and other languages.
We invite KS5 students to work with younger students and support their language learning. Students participate in an in depth study of customs and festivals around the world. They also have the opportunity to compare daily life these countries and areas around the world, for example, study of housing in a variety of different countries.