French
French Vision Statement
Our vision for MFL at HHS is to provide students with ‘a liberation from insularity’ and ‘an opening to other cultures’. We want to equip pupils with the knowledge and cultural capital they need to succeed in life and to encourage pupils to appreciate and celebrate difference. We want our students to see that the world is a much bigger place than the rural environment that they currently live in and that learning a foreign language is an important part of integrating into this wider world. We also aim to try to give students the opportunity to visit a country of the language of study so that they are given opportunities to practise in real life contexts.
Useful Links
- linguascope
- kerboodle
- languageskills
- thisislanguage
- languagesonline
- language-gym
- atantot-extra
- quizlet
- senecalearning
- aqa
- eduqas
- espanol-extra
- duolingo
Examination Courses
Key Stage 4 - GCSE French
We follow the AQA exam syllabus at GCSE for all students. Students are either entered for foundation tier (grades 1- 5) or higher tier (grades 4 – 9) depending on their progress. Regardless of tier, all students will study three themes at GCSE:
Theme 1: Identity and culture (Me, my family & friends, technology, free time, customs & festivals)
Theme 2: Local, national, international and global areas of interest (Home town, neighbourhood and region, social issues, global issues, travel & tourism)
Theme 3: Current and future study and employment (Life at school and college, jobs, career choices & ambitions)
The GCSE exam is divided into 4 sections, which are examined separately and each make up 25% of the overall GCSE grade;
Speaking – Conducted by class teacher but marked by exam board. Consists of a photo card, role-play and general conversation questions.
Listening – Students listen to various recordings and select appropriate answers or write short responses.
Reading – Students read various texts of varying lengths, some of which are authentic texts e.g. literary works, and select appropriate answers or write short responses. Students also need to translate short sentences / a paragraph from the target language into English.
Writing – Students write responses to a choice of two different topics. Depending on tier, the amount and type of questions vary slightly. Students also need to translate short sentences / a paragraph from English into the target language
Key Stage 5 - A Level French
We follow the EDUQAS exam board for A-level languages. Four different themes are covered over the course of the two years of study:
A LEVEL FRENCH:
Being a young person in French-speaking society (Families and citizenship, Youth trends and personal identity, education and employment opportunities)
Understanding the French-speaking world (Regional culture and heritage in France, French-speaking countries and communities, Media, art, film and music in the French-speaking world)
Diversity and difference (Migration and integration, Cultural identity and marginalisation, Cultural enrichment and celebrating difference, Discrimination and diversity)
France 1940-1950: The Occupation and post-war years (June 1940–May 1945, The cultural dimension in occupied France, 1945-1950)
The A level consists of 3 components which make up the final grade awarded;
Component 1 – Speaking 30% of qualification – A presentation of an independent research project followed by a theme based discussion on another topic.
Component 2 – Listening, Reading & Translation 50% of qualification
Component 3 – Critical and analytical response in writing 20% of qualification. This consists of writing 2 essays; one based on a literary work studied and the other on another literary work or a film studied.
Favourite MFL links:
