Modern Languages at Mount St Mary's College.

Staff:

French     years 7 - 13         Spanish   years 9 - 13

German   is available as an after school activity

Lower School French

French is studied in ability sets in both Upper Elements and Figures. The course book is Encore Tricolore Nouvelle edition 1 and 2. All students have the opportunity to subscribe to a supplementary magazine called Bonjour! and Allons-y!   There are 5 thirty five minute periods of French per week.   Some of the French activities which take place in lower school are; 'un petit déjeuner français' with croissants, hot chocolate and pains au chocolat and quizzes. There is also a French theatre production especially for young learners performed at the Mount each year by the European Theatre Company.We always study the scripts as part of the syllabus.  

Middle School French

In Rudiments, the main event of the year is our whole year group exchange with our link school - ' Notre Dame St Sigisbert' in Nancy, North Eastern France.   Have a look at the St Sigisbert website www.ndsigis.edu .   In the winter term the French pupils spend a week at Mount St Mary's and then, after our internal summer examinations we go to France for a week.  This year's syllabus is not only based around Encore Tricolore Nouvelle Edition 3 but also on exchanging emails and letters with partners and learning about Nancy and the surrounding area.   There are 4 lessons of 35 minutes per week.

GCSE French

There is an opportunity to choose either one or both languages at GCSE level.   The course gets 5 or 4 lessons per week.  

Rudiments Spanish

All students in Rudiments begin Spanish.   Most of them choose to continue with this popular language to GCSE.   All students from this year group upwards have the option to go to Spain on the yearly exchange with our link school Joan 23 in Hospitalet, a suburb of Barcelona.  The MSM students go out to Barcelona in the spring term and receive their partners in June.

The course book we follow is Espanol de Primero.  There are five 35 minute lessons per week.  

GCSE Spanish

Most students continue with Spanish to GCSE, having 5 periods per week.  The course books are Espanol de Primero 2 and Vaya 3.  There are many activities such as language club, on-line national quizzes (we had many winners last year).  There are 5 lessons of thirty-five minutes per week. 

Modern Languages in the Sixth Form

We follow the AQA specification. At AS all students enter the 3 modules at the end of year 12.

At A2 we do the exam option for module 5.

In both AS and A2 communication and comprehension are stressed and written accuracy is a major element in our integrated study of language skills.

Opportunities for the pupils to improve their communication skills in the language abound. The department has access to satellite television and all students are subscribed to Authentik which is a bi-monthly publication containing articles and radio extracts from the French and Spanish media. All pupils are supported in their spoken language by our residential native-speaking assistants and, unlike in many schools where one lesson would be the norm, students at the Mount have at least two individual sessions a week, making a huge difference to their oral fluency. The department joins in the college philosophy of encouraging all students to develop the skills necessary to become independent learners.   There are many useful resources in the schools Learning Resource Centre such as videos, CD roms, books, magazines, weekly newspapers and grammatical reference materials.

Outside the classroom there are cultural opportunities for students such as trips to the local arts cinema, the theatre and galleries and of course to relevant A level study days.  Students take part in the yearly Spanish Day at Ampleforth College.