Modern Foreign Languages (MFL)

Key Contacts:
Lorenzo Launo lal@gryphon.dorset.sch.uk (Head of Department)
Emilie Couturier egc@gryphon.dorset.sch.uk (2nd in Department)

Alice Robson (Spanish) – alice.robson@gryphon.dorset.sch.uk
Raul Cabarcas Barros (Spanish) rca@gryphon.dorset.sch.uk

Sara Gould-Haines (French) sgo@gryphon.dorset.sch.uk
Cigale Cot (French) cco@gryphon.dorset.sch.uk
Elle Jansen (French) eja@gryphon.dorset.sch.uk
Stephen Tuke (French) snt@gryphon.dorset.sch.uk

The information below is split into French and Spanish, giving details for both KS3 and KS4.

Homework for ALL languages: 
Students will be set weekly homework  from a variety of sources, such as Quizlet for vocabulary learning/revision, Seneca for support with grammar, vocabulary learning, and exam style questions,  Printed booklet/Kerboodle/Exam Pro/Grade 9 School based task for offline vocabulary learning and practicing exam style tasks.

Subject:  French

Course Content

Year 7

• Half Term 1: Intro into French – Students will study basic information about themselves including name, alphabet, age, days numbers & age, months & birthday, “être” + basic adjectives, “avoir” + hair/eyes
• Half Term 2: Free time and hobbies – students will learn hobbies & sports and genders, types of TV, types of film, music, books, internet. They will also learn how to express their opinions.
• Half Term 3: Where I live – where you live, types of houses, places in town, activities in house
• Half term 4: School – subjects, pencil case items, adjectives, connectives, qualifiers, days of week, ETRE + describing teachers, present tense
• Half Term 5: Body and illness – Body parts and gender, body parts & numbers & colours, basic doctors role play and basic remedies, comparatives.
• Half term 6: La France et La Francophonie – Useful language for a trip abroad, ordering snacks & ice cream, Francophone countries & projects and presentations, Project putting all French learned in YEAR 7.

Year 8

• Half Term 1: All about me! – revision of all previous terms 1-6 from Year 7, basic info, hobbies, adjectives, feelings, expressing opinions. + introduce pets/family
• Half Term 2: Au café – food, food adjectives, likes and dislikes, shopping, present tense, writing menus, café role play, PAST TENSE
• Half Term 3: Chez moi – revise house and home & introduce rooms in a house, reflexive verbs with daily routine, jobs around house, telling time, opinions, devoir, revise negatives
• Half term 4: Fashion – clothes, accessories, colours and adjective agreements, school uniform, opinions, fashion show, future tense
• Half Term 5: The Past tense – Past tense with avoir, past tense with etre, expressing opinions in the past tense with adjectives, extended writing, Creative tasks
• Half term 6: Tv & Films – Revise types of films, opinions, film reviews, creative- make a trailer for a famous film, film posters

Year 9

• Half Term 1: Holidays – countries, modes of transport, types of holiday preferences, adjectives to describe transport, advantages and disadvantages of transport, weather + holiday activities, PAST tense and past holidays
• Half Term 2: Healthy Living – Body and illness revision,  healthy foods, ,keeping healthy, smoking & vaping dangers, alcohol and drugs dangers, mental health and project
• Half Term 3: Future Jobs and Careers – Various jobs and careers, advantages and disadvantages of jobs, qualities needed for jobs,  future tense proper (future job plans), advantages of language learning
• Half term 4: Rights and Responsibilities – Young persons rights, teenagers rights, allowed to do v not allowed to do, young peoples priorities, world issues, how to improve things.
• Half Term 5: Media & Environment – The internet, new technology vocabulary, IT related stuff,  actuality, environment problems, environment solutions.
• Half term 6: Fun Project Competition – Revision of all previous topics and students create a newspaper/magazine including cars and houses for sale, environment and sport news articles, agony aunt & lonely heart letters, advers for holidays and products etc. Students all get a paper and electronic copy of this project.

Assessment

At the end of each half term students will be assessed on a multi skills test which will cover on rotation at least 2 out of the following skills: listening, speaking, reading, grammar and translation.

Key Stage 4 French overview

Syllabus Information:  AQA GCSE French

Course Content

Year 10

• Half Term 1: Family and Relationships: Students will develop the vocabulary and grammar needed to talk about themselves, their family and friends, including giving opinions, making comparisons, describing people, and discussing relationships. They will build confidence using present, future and immediate future tenses, adjective agreement, and a range of topic-specific language.
• Half Term 2: Healthy Living and Lifestyle: Students will learn to talk about healthy and unhealthy lifestyles, including sports, food, drink, and lifestyle choices. They will extend their language skills by expressing opinions, giving advice, describing habits in the past, present and near future, and using a wider range of grammar such as negatives, adverbs, and different articles with food.
• Half Term 3: Education and Work: Students will develop the language needed to discuss school life, daily routines, and future careers, expressing opinions about subjects, school rules, and uniforms. They will build their confidence using a range of tenses, including the future and conditional, to talk about aspirations, ideal schools, and career plans while extending their vocabulary and grammatical accuracy.
• Half Term 4: Popular Culture and Free Time: Students will learn to talk about their hobbies, interests, entertainment, and use of technology, expressing opinions and justifying their preferences. They will develop greater fluency by using a range of tenses, including the present, perfect and imperfect, alongside more complex sentence structures to describe leisure activities in France and around the world.
• Half Term 5: Popular Culture and Festivals: Students will continue to build on their knowledge of free time and popular culture while beginning to explore French festivals and celebrations. With time dedicated to work experience, mock examinations and the GCSE speaking exam, lessons will focus on developing confidence, fluency and spontaneity in spoken French, alongside exam preparation and revision of key language and grammar.
• Half Term 6: Customs, Festivals and Celebrations: Students will explore festivals, customs, languages and religious traditions from across the French-speaking world, developing both their cultural understanding and communication skills. They will consolidate key GCSE grammar by confidently using a range of tenses, asking and answering questions, and combining more complex language to describe past, present and future celebrations, including creating and presenting their own festival.

Year 11

• Half Term 1: Celebrity Culture: Students will explore the lives of celebrities and the influence of fame, discussing its advantages and disadvantages while learning about well-known French-speaking personalities. They will strengthen their GCSE language skills through revision of the perfect tense, further practice of the conditional tense and key grammatical structures, while continuing to develop their listening, speaking, reading and writing skills in preparation for future assessments.
• Half Term 2: Travel and Tourism: Students will explore travel, tourism and places of interest across the French-speaking world, including weather, holidays and Francophone islands. They will develop the language needed to describe previous and dream holidays, while consolidating key GCSE grammar such as the perfect and imperfect tenses and the pronouns y and en, alongside regular practice of listening, speaking, reading and writing skills.
• Half Term 3: Media and Technology: Students will explore the impact of media and technology on everyday life, comparing life before and after the internet and discussing the role of mobile phones and social media. They will develop the language needed to talk about how they use technology, its benefits and risks, and online safety, while strengthening their use of multiple time frames, modal verbs, negatives and more complex grammatical structures alongside continued listening, speaking, reading and writing practice.
• Half Term 4: The Environment and Where People Live: Students will explore environmental issues and the places where people live, discussing how to protect the planet and improve their local area. They will express opinions about environmental responsibility, describe their ideal town, and consider whether they lead an environmentally friendly lifestyle, while developing their use of the conditional tense, je voudrais, negatives and other key GCSE grammar through regular listening, speaking, reading and writing practice.
• Half Term 5: GCSE Revision and Exam Preparation: Students will consolidate and revise language from all GCSE topic areas, strengthening their vocabulary, grammar and confidence across a range of contexts. Lessons will focus on developing exam techniques for listening, reading and writing, alongside intensive preparation for the GCSE speaking examination, which takes place at the beginning of May.

Assessment

Year 10

• Assessment 1:Baseline test
• Assessment 2:listening
• Assessment 3:reading
• Assessment 4:listening
• Assessment 5:writing and translation
• Assessment 6:listening and reading
• Assessment 7:speaking
• Assessment 8:listening
• Assessment 9:reading
• Assessment 10:writing
• Assessment 11:reading
• Assessment 12: speaking

Year 11

• Assessment 1:listening
• Assessment 2:writing
• Assessment 3:reading
• Assessment 4:reading
• Assessment 5:listening
• Assessment 6:speaking
• Assessment 7:writing
• Assessment 8:listening
• Assessment 9:reading
• Assessment 10:writing

Subject: Spanish

Course Content

Year 7

• Half Term 1: Introduction to Spanish – Describing myself family, describing people. Name, age using ‘tener’, descriptions using ‘ser’ + adjective agreement. Phonics – a/e/i/o/u, ll/l, co/ca/cu
• Half Term 2: Where I live – In my town, activities in town, describing what is in the town and what you can do in the town. ‘Hay’, se puede + inf. Phonics Cu+vowel, ce/ci Culture – Researching a Latin-American/Spanish town
• Half Term 3: School – School subjects, school uniforms. Giving opinions about school subjects and their uniform using verbs like ‘gustar’ and connectives. Phonics – z, que, qui
• Half term 4: My Future – Future education plans / describing their primary school. Talking about their future desires about studying ‘me gustaría’ ‘voy a + inf’, talking about their primary school using the imperfect tense – ía/aba verbs endings. Phonics – go/ga/gu, ge/gi
• Half Term 5: Where are we going? – Making plans. Talking about meeting up, talking about what to wear – ‘voy a llevar’ weather – ‘hace’. Phonics – I, n/ñ, v/b
• Half term 6: Spanish Festivals – Talking about Hispanic festivals. Recap ‘se puede’. Rr/r, silent h. Culture – research Spanish/LA festivals. Film study: Coco/book of life

Year 8

• Half Term 1: Describing past holidays – Countries and activities, Latin American countries and Spain. Grammar:  Preterite tense of ‘ir’ and regular verbs. Phonics: Strong and weak vowels
• Half Term 2: Talking about foods – Past restaurant visits, and ordering in a restaurant. Recap: Preterite tense of regular verbs, immediate future. Typical dishes from Spanish-speaking countries. Phonics – ce/ci, z, que
• Half Term 3: My Daily Life – Describing daily routine. Reflexive verbs e.g. me levanto. Times of the day e.g. a las seis. Present and past tense
• Half term 4: Hobbies and Opinions – music, films, tv programmes. Present tense of ver and escuchar. Varied opinions using gustar like verbs. Preterite recap. Time phrases. Film study: Ferdinand Phonics – qui, e+i, n+ñ.
• Half Term 5: House description, town activities and directions – Further practice of main tenses: past, preterite, immediate future. Comparatives Phonics – ga/go/gu, ge/gi
• Half term 6: Sport and free time – Opinions and reasons, including from other people. Gustar like verbs, connectives. Phonics – v/b, rr/r. Culture: Spanish speaking football / euro / world cup

Year 9

• Half Term 1: Talking about healthy living – Illness, and remedies. Present tense in full ar/er/ir verbs. Se debería + infinitive for giving advice.
• Half Term 2: The world of Work – Talking about jobs and future aspirations. Interesting phrases e.g. siempre me ha gustado. Conditional tense to describe what an ideal job would be like.
• Half Term 3: Technology – Talking about what technology we use, benefits and drawbacks of different technologies. Present and preterite tenses.
• Half term 4: Environment & Latin America – Talking about Latin American countries and key geographical terms. Se debería + infinitive. Para + infitive e.g. para ser verde. Para proteger el planeta. Near future recap: voy a reciclar. Tener que + hay que Culture: Voces inocentes (El Salvador)
• Half Term 5: El tiempo y problemas en viaje – Weather in different tenses – holiday problems past tenses – Super phrases – si pudiera/tuviera/ganara
• Half term 6: Family, relationship & celebrity culture – Recap verb ser – tener, physical descriptions, personality – third person verbs –  me llevo bien/mal con – verbs such as apoyar / ayudar – verb seguir – 3 tenses poster presentation on favorite celeb. Super phrases – si pudiera/tuviera/ganara

Assessment

Year 7

• Assessment 1: Reading and Translation
• Assessment 2: Writing and Listening
• Assessment 3: Grammar and Translation
• Assessment 4: Reading and Speaking
• Assessment 5: Writing and Listening
• Assessment 6: Speaking, Grammar and Translation

Year 8

• Assessment 1: Listening, Grammar and Translation
• Assessment 2: Reading and Speaking
• Assessment 3: Listening and Writing
• Assessment 4: Grammar and Translation
• Assessment 5: Reading and Speaking
• Assessment 6: Listening and Writing

Year 9

• Assessment 1: Writing, Listening and Reading
• Assessment 2: Speaking (conversation), Reading and Writing
• Assessment 3: Listening, Translation and Speaking (Photo card)
• Assessment 4: Listening and Speaking (Role play)
• Assessment 5: Reading and Speaking (Reading aloud)
• Assessment 6: Grammar and Writing

Key Stage 4 Spanish overview

Syllabus Information: AQA GCSE

Course Content

Year 10

• Half Term 1: Free time Family, friends relationship Recap verb ser – tener, me llevo bien/mal con – verbs such as apoyar – marital status with estar – describing best friends and their qualities – looking at different types of families. Different types of sports Opinions, present tense, verb + inf, Imm. Future, Simple future
• Half Term 2: Vida sana – healthy/unhealthy lifestyle, expressions with tener, radical changing verbs, food, immediate future tense.
• Half Term 3: La escuela y el trabajo – school subjects, range of opinions, future aspirations, range of negatives, second type of future, questioning words, infinitive constructions.
• Half Term 4: Tv and music – present and future tenses together. Expressions of sequence, time phrases, revise preterite.
• Half Term 5: Festivals – types of hispanic festivals, use of three tenses, past time phrases, apocopation, infinitive constructions (antes/despues/al + inf)
• Half Term 6: Los famosos – celebrity culture, verb seguir, expressions with ser/estar, imperfect tense, imperfect v preterite, -isimo/ito , reflexive verbs, debating celebrities as role model (positive/negative influence), possessive using de

Year 11

• Half Term 1: Las vacaciones – Holiday activities using the three tenses , recap mean of transports, conditional tense, use of object pronouns, past continuous, possessive pronouns, avoiding the passive using se.
• Half Term 2: Technology – Perfect tense, verbs with prepositions, present continuous, por/para. Talking about good and bad points of technology, object pronouns, present subjunctive.
• Half Term 3: Mi casa, mi pueblo mi ciudad y el medio ambiente – adjective agreement, places in town, el que, lo que, desde hace, perfect tense revision, imperative, acabar de
• Half Term 4: PPE2, Revision across topics
• Half Term 5: Revision across topics & GCSE final Speaking exams in early May.

Assessment

Year 10

• Assessment 1: Baseline test
• Assessment 2: Listening
• Assessment 3: Reading
• Assessment 4: Writing
• Assessment 5: Reading
• Assessment 6: Speaking
• Assessment 7: Listening
• Assessment 8: PPE Listening
• Assessment 9: PPE Reading
• Assessment 10: PPE Writing
• Assessment 11: Listening/Reading
• Assessment 12: PPE Speaking

Year 11

• Assessment 1: Listening
• Assessment 2: Writing
• Assessment 3: PPE Listening
• Assessment 4: PPE Reading
• Assessment 5: PPE Writing
• Assessment 6: PPE Speaking
• Assessment 7: PPE Listening
• Assessment 8: PPE Reading
• Assessment 9: PPE Writing
• Assessment 10: PPE Speaking