Subjects: Modern Languages (French; German; Spanish; Italian; Mandarin)

Overview   

At the Royal High School, Bath we aim to inspire you to study up to six world languages: French, German, Italian, Mandarin, Spanish and Russian are all on offer. Our language options are not just unique to Bath but to the Girls' Day School Trust as a whole and we offer you amazing choice and diversity.

Our excellent resources and facilities ensure that we engage learners at all levels. All classrooms are equipped with interactive whiteboards and digital projectors, and we have a dedicated ICT suite for languages. Our staff are highly skilled and motivated and are constantly exploring new teaching tools and resources. Language learning at the Royal High is lively, active and exciting. Students produce their own videos, podcasts and even audio books using advanced speech engines. 

We challenge our pupils to broaden their horizons and take charge of their learning. Whether this is through our extensive exchange programme, participating in video-conferencing or through the opportunities our ICT facilities offer for independent study, we are proud of the confident and dynamic modern linguists that achieve such amazing results in and out of the classroom.

Language Assistants

Throughout Key Stage 4 our excellent native-speaker language assistants provide weekly conversation lessons for students. Their teaching supports the learning taking place in language lessons and is a vital component in the students' experience of the language and country.

Modern Languages at Key Stage 3

In Year 7 pupils study German and Spanish for six months alongside French. They are then given a free choice to opt for two of the three languages with which they continue in Years 8 and 9.  In addition one group of pupils is given the option of studying Mandarin instead of Latin in Years 8 and 9.

Modern Languages at Key Stage 4

All pupils are required to opt for at least one modern language at GCSE. French, German, Mandarin and Spanish are all options at GCSE. We also offer a successful and popular 'fast track' course for dual linguists at Key Stage 4.  Pupils opting for two languages at GCSE take one language early at the end of Year 10, followed by a one year GCSE Italian course in Year 11. 

Beginners' Mandarin and Russian are offered to all pupils within the school as a weekly extra-curricular lesson. Pupils with knowledge of other languages are able to sit GCSE, AS or A Level at the school.  Overseas students at Key Stages 3 and 4 normally use their modern language time for EFL lessons.  If they enter the Royal High School in Year 7, they may take one modern language instead of two at Key Stage 3. 

Lesson allocation per fortnight

Year 7                    7 hours (3.5 French, 3.5 German/Spanish)

Year 8                    8 hours (+ 3 hours if Mandarin studied)

Year 9                    7 hours (+ 3 hours if Mandarin studied)

Year 10                 5 hours per language option

Year 11                 5 hours per language option

Resources

We have a fantastic range of resources available for pupils and staff to use, the majority of which are accessible remotely. The Modern Languages department has all audio files stored on the school intranet and other resources, including podcasts, can also be downloaded from the school portal. Our GCSE courses are supported by Kerboodle, an online resource bank that provides practice in the form of audio and video files and interactive tasks. All pupils in Key Stage 4 have access to this anytime, anywhere.

GCSE Examinations

French, German, Italian and Spanish follow the GCSE AQA specification. Mandarin follows the GCSE Edexcel specification. Pupils carry out controlled assessments in speaking and writing, each worth 30%. They are examined at the end of Year 11 in reading and listening skills, each worth 20%.

French 

French is widely spoken on five continents, in 43 countries, by approximately 200 million people.  It is one of the principal languages of diplomacy and of important international organisations.  Furthermore the prestige of French art, music, dance, fashion, cuisine and cinema makes French a culturally important foreign language.  French literature is one of the richest and most influential of the modern European world, with authors such as Racine, Molière, Zola, Camus, Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir.  France is also our nearest continental neighbour with an immense variety of landscapes and is therefore an ideal holiday destination.  It is a beautiful language and gives you a real sense of achievement as your range and fluency develops. There are so many reasons why learning to speak French will enhance your life and open doors in the future, for both recreational enjoyment and increased employment opportunities.

The French Department at the Royal High Senior School is flourishing.  Currently seven members of staff teach French, including two French nationals, one of whom is our "assistante". 

Resources

At KS3 our main course material is provided by Expo 1, Expo 2 and Métro 3.  The text books are complemented by interactive resources for the classroom, audio extracts and a Pupil Activity Package for use in the ICT room.

At KS4 we use the Nelson Thornes AQA Higher French course which has an online resource bank which pupils can access from home as well as at school. Pupils also use the online resources linguascope and languages online extensively to consolidate vocabulary and grammar.

Opportunities

We encourage pupils to forge and maintain links with France by our annual 6 day Normandy exchange for Years 8 and 9 as well as our continued participation in the Bristol-Bordeaux Exchange scheme which has been running for over 60 years.  Pupils in Years 10 and 11 can either go on a week long study visit at Easter or take part in the full exchange, going to Bordeaux at Easter or during the summer holidays.  Year 7 have a weekly French club run by College students.  This gives them the opportunity to enjoy using their French in an informal atmosphere.

German

It might surprise you to find out that German is the most widely spoken language in Europe. More people speak German as their native language than any other language in Europe, since Germany's 83 million inhabitants make it the most populous European nation.  It is also an official language of Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg, and Liechtenstein.
While learning German can connect you to 120 million native speakers around the globe, it is the 3rd most popular foreign language taught worldwide and the second most popular in Europe and Japan, after English.

Knowing German creates business opportunities. Germany has the third largest economy in the world and is the economic powerhouse of the European Union.  Germany's economic strength equals business opportunities.  The Japanese, who have the 2nd most powerful economy in the world, understand the business advantages that a knowledge of German will bring them: 68% of Japanese students study German.

German-speaking countries have a rich cultural heritage. Germany is often referred to as the land of "Dichter und Denker" -- of poets and thinkers.  Goethe, Thomas Mann, Franz Kafka, and Hermann Hesse are just a few authors whose names and works are well-known internationally. The world of classical music is inseparable from the names of Mozart, Bach, Beethoven, Strauss, and Wagner to name only a few. From the magnificent architecture of medieval buildings to the avant garde Bauhaus movement, Germans have made substantial contributions to world art and architecture.

The German department currently has five members of staff who teach German, including our German assistant, who is a German national.

Resources

At KS3 we use Echo Express 1and 2.  These are supplemented by Computer Packages which match the courses.  These are used both by teachers in lessons and by pupils in the ICT room.

At KS4 we use Logo 4 and for the new GCSE have introduced the Nelson Thornes AQA Higher German course which has an online resource bank which pupils can access from home as well as at school. 

In addition we use additional online resources to supplement the teaching.

In the German department the teachers are innovative and like to engage the pupils by using video cameras and by introducing them to contemporary German music.

Opportunities

We are fortunate to be able to offer an annual exchange to our link school in Münster.  This is open to all pupils studying German from years 9 to the Sixth form.

Spanish

Spanish is one of the most popular languages at the Royal High School and the third most widely-used language in the world, after Mandarin Chinese and English. The cultures of Spain and Latin America offer the richest possible mix of interests in language, literature. film, food, dance, music, politics, fashion, architecture, art, history, for travel, for work, in their geography and landscapes and in their peoples. 

With the help of highly- qualified staff, both Spanish and English-speaking, our students have access to a really dynamic programme. Our excellent results, the popularity of the language in the school and the variety of courses and activities on offer makes our department distinctive and ensures a high level of success, interest and engagement in our students.

Resources

We use the course-book Caminos 1 and 2 at Key Stage 3, complemented by lots of on-line resources and the use of the Smartboard and Smartbook software to make our material visually appealing and clear.  We all teach as interactively as possible in the target language and believe strongly in the teaching of grammar to underpin our direct method teaching.

At Key Stage 4 we use Nelson Thornes AQA Higher Spanish course which has an online resource bank that students can access from home as well as in school.

Opportunities

This year in the Spanish department we have organised: Video-conferencing , Sangría and Montaditos extravaganzas, a trip to Granada with the History department, a  GCSE revision day in Bristol and trips to films in Spanish in Bath.

At the beginning of Year 11 we run a school to school exchange with a similar school in Valencia, in the south of Spain.  In the past two years our exchange has been joined by boys from Beechen Cliff School in Bath and this has been a very welcome development for both schools.   Going on the exchange is the best and the most exciting way of learning Spanish and the girls who have been on the exchange do much better in their GCSEs.  They also often have the time of their lives and return on their own or with groups of friends to Valencia.

Italian

Our Italian department is dynamic and flourishing. We offer Italian as a one year accelerated GCSE course in Year 11 to all pupils who have opted to take two languages at GCSE. If this appeals to you, as it has to many of our gifted linguists, then you would take one language GCSE early in Year 10 before taking a one year Italian GCSE course in Year 11. In this way you would end up with three languages at GCSE level having only used up two option blocks. We call this course our ‘Fast track ‘ languages option as it is designed to stretch our most able linguists and offer them fantastic variety. At the moment we have 25 ‘fast track' linguists who will be starting Italian in September having taken either French or German GCSE early.

If you decide that this course is for you then you would be taught by Miss Lombardo, a native speaker with excellent subject knowledge and a good understanding of the demands of the course. She would guide you through the accelerated course and make sure that you felt well-prepared to tackle the GCSE exams at the end of the year. Although the course is accelerated, the results have been excellent.

We run a very successful and popular exchange to Matera in Italy a heritage city in the south of the country. As a student of Italian you would be able and encouraged to participate in the exchange.