MFL Department News
Welcome to our first newsletter of the year in MFL and what a busy first half term we have had so far. We have welcomed our new teacher of German who temporarily replaces Mrs Ingram on maternity leave. Mr Briscoe did start with us in the summer term last year but is now with us full time until the Summer term 2024. We have launched our German and French film clubs and all our students have been using our online learning platforms such as Quizlet, Blooket and Active Learn. All students should now have logins for these three platforms to access our vocabulary and tasks. There have been some minor issues with Active Learn that we are currently sorting out with students in lessons and this should be sorted shortly.
We have been learning how to introduce ourselves in German in Year 7, learning our greetings, phonics and counting to 20. In Year 8 we have been learning about travelling around Germany and Year 9 have been talking about our role models and writing descriptions. In Year 10, students have made a super start to GCSE German and French learning about school life in Germany and in French, we have been learning about friendships and family. In Year 11, both our German and French students have completed their first mock speaking exam and this was a huge success. We are really proud of all of our students arriving on time, completing the 3 tasks in the exam to a really high standard and preparing themselves well for the next one that will take place in January 2024. Well done to all of our students!
Next week marks the start of our two-week Language and Literature Festival and we have a huge amount of exciting activities planned for this fortnight in the languages department. Year 7s will get the chance to start our Year 7 Spelling Bee competition, which is a national competition that takes places during the year and aims to find the best German spelling bees in the country. Last year, we reached the national final at Cambridge University. We have some amazing linguists this year who I am sure will enjoy getting involved in our lunchtime club to practise ready for the regional competition and see how many German words they can spell in a minute. Could you be the next Spelling Bee Champion to take on our local high schools? We will also be launching our bake off within the MFL department for all year groups. Can you produce the best language-based cake for our competition? We will also begin the process of writing letters to our French and German partner schools which I am really looking forward to. How exciting to get to know our French and German students in our partner schools! We will also be learning all about German history, in particular, the Berlin Wall and the factors leading up to that plus we will be building our own. Watch this space to see if any of us escape over it!
Mrs Gill
Curriculum Leader for MFL
