GCSE French

Overview

French is a popular option as most students will have been exposed to the language since Lower School.

We want our students to be confident French learners and make sure they enjoy the lessons in order to progress well.

In class, students are encouraged to take part as much as possible in order to improve their confidence in speaking. Though we currently use the GCSE French for OCR course, we do not want to reduce our lessons to linguistic skills, and strive to include cultural aspects: watch films, listen to radio extracts, read French magazines, play games or even share a Galette des Rois! We believe this is all part of the French experience which we would like to be a positive one.

An exchange is currently running with Lycée du Mont Blanc in Chamonix, and open to students from Year 11.

We have a French Language Assistant who sees students in small groups in order to raise their listening and speaking skills whilst bringing a youth cultural aspect.

Assessment of work

The new specification gives more flexibility to the students with regard to examinations. Both the Speaking and the Writing components are now Controlled Assessments which are completed in class throughout the two year course. Only the best two pieces of each are submitted to the board. They both cater for 30% of the overall mark. There is no specific level of entry on these modules as tasks are differentiated.

The other two skills (Listening and Reading) continue to be examined at the end of Year 11, with one exam bearing 20% of the overall grade. Students are entered for Higher Level or Foundation level for each of these modules, depending on their ability.

Further study