Modern Foreign Languages

Bonjour! Hola! Guten Tag!

Welcome to the Modern Foreign Languages department.

At SVCS, we believe in encouraging our students to speak foreign languages independently for communication in class and in the wider world. We use songs, literary extracts, film and magazine articles to promote enjoyment of language learning and to explore the cultures of some of the many countries where French and Spanish are spoken. In order to foster an independent approach, we begin by studying the phonics (i.e. the sound-spelling relationships) of the languages and we also teach strategies for each of the skills of listening, reading, speaking, writing and translating to and from the foreign language.

In Year 7, students have one lesson of French and one lesson of Spanish each week. Students then continue with just their preferred language in Years 8 and 9, this enables them to focus on one language in preparation for the GCSE.

In order to help our students speak foreign languages with as much confidence as possible, we take part in the regional “Have Your Say” competition, which is organised by the Association for Language Learning. For the last three years we have been very proud to take teams through to the regional finals.