Modern Foreign Languages
‘Language is the road map of a culture, it tells you where its people come from and where they are going’
Rita Mae Brown
Our vision in the MFL Department is that languages will take you further and beyond in life, improve your cognitive abilities and your literacy skills. Therefore, students should explore possibilities beyond frontiers, and this is achievable through breaking language and culture barriers.
Although we can only introduce them to Spanish and French language and culture, we take every opportunity to encourage debate about other languages and cultures in an interactive way as part of an enjoyable learning experience. Knowledge of culture is essential in our conception of language learning. We promote intercultural, inter-linguistic discussion and contrastive analysis at all Key Stages.
In MFL we are committed to this vision and through our department, St. George’s School has been awarded International School Award Foundation Certificate: Introducing Internationalism. See below
MFL Curriculum
At St. George's we offer both French and Spanish from Year 7 to Year 13. In Years 7 and 8 half of students study French and the other half study Spanish. Normally, at the end of Year 9 students opt to do French or Spanish for their GCSE.
We provide a broad MFL curriculum that is connected to other subject areas with variable routes through the key stages to allow students to maximise their attainment by developing the skills and talents they already hold. We understand the importance of a spiral curriculum; thematic content and the linguistic transition are connected bottom to top and top to bottom.
Our MFL curriculum has been designed to give students the knowledge, understanding and skills to progress onto the next stage of their education, irrespective of their prior attainment, background or ethnicity. Nonetheless, we also take into account the validity of languages in the world and how they are a means of unifying cultures through awareness of common values. We have included explicit mention to each cultural area in our Schemes of Work.
Staff
- Ms S Redondo - Head of Department
- Madame K Derdabi
- Mr T Carswell - Teacher of Spanish and French
- Ms T Coleman - Teacher of Spanish and French & British Council Link
- Ms C Dubois - Teacher of French
- Mr P Giambaressi - Teacher of French
- Ms L Ling - Teacher of French
- Ms E Cajas - Spanish Assistant
Want to find out more?
If you wish to find out more about Modern Foreign Languages at St George’s please feel free to contact Ms S Redondo at S.Redondo@stgeorgesrc.org
Independent Learning
In general, in MFL learning in the classroom is enhanced through self-study, which are set every week, and consist of vocabulary learning, extended writing tasks (including creative writing), exam practice, and quizzes.
Students of Modern Foreign Languages need to be resilient language learners. Within the MFL classroom, we consistently emphasise that mistakes are to be celebrated as part of the learning process. We believe that MFL learning takes place when students decide how they move on from these errors. This open environment allows students to grow in confidence and not feel intimidated in speaking out in front of the class. Opportunities for reflection are built in at regular intervals, and the curriculum is designed to build students’ independence. See Independent Learning links below for Spanish and French.