Modern Foreign Languages
At The Gregg School we are passionate about our students learning Modern Foreign Languages (MFL).
We offer French, Spanish and German and encourage our students to take at least one of these languages at GCSE. The MFL syllabus is designed to enable students to become independent language learners with good communication and interpersonal skills. Students are encouraged to think about grammatical structure and experiment with language, developing an awareness which may enhance their literacy skills and increase performance across the curriculum. Lessons focus on enabling students to communicate in the target language with increasing confidence and fluency.
On entry to The Gregg School in Year 7, our students choose one language and are timetabled a second language which they study through to the end of Year 8. At this point they select which one they would like to focus on in Year 9, and potentially take on to GCSE. By special arrangement with the Head of MFL, strong linguists may opt to take both languages at GCSE level. All MFL GCSE courses follow the EdExcel specification. We also offer an extra-curricular opportunity to acquire FCSE qualifications (in French, German or Spanish) for those who wish to continue their studies without committing to the full GCSE.
In addition to FCSE Club, the MFL department run enrichment activities including Duolingo Club, SPY Club (code breaking and linguistic challenges with a national certification at the end) and Language Leaders.
Language Leaders is an internal accreditation scheme for students who wish to learn how to deliver language lessons to younger pupils from a local primary school. This builds confidence in their own language learning as well as teaching them how to construct resources, plan and deliver short lessons, in real life.
Our Able Linguists are invited to take part in workshops hosted by Southampton University's Languages Department. These give students the chance to demonstrate some of the more complex linguistic devices and grammatical structures that they have learnt.
Our MFL department runs trips to France, Germany and Spain, enabling them to develop their use of the target language and gain a greater cultural awareness - a key element of the MFL curriculum. Our Year 9 students visit Paris during camp week in the summer, our German students can visit the Christmas Markets in Koln or join the history students to visit Berlin, and our Spanish students can venture to Barcelona.
The whole school joins in the Euro Café and activities on European Day of Languages in September and House competitions for students include: creating Ofrenda and Papel Picado to commemorate the Day of the Dead in the Autumn term, designing Fasching Masks in the Spring to celebrate Karnival, and taking part in our Petanque Competition in the Summer term to coincide with Bastille Day.
