Learning another language takes you to the heart of another people and another culture. We live in a multi-cultural, multi-lingual society and at the College we know that language skills are vital for our students. Languages form part of the core curriculum and our girls achieve consistently high results.
We aim to develop enthusiastic and confident language learners whose skills are based on strong grammatical foundations, enabling genuine manipulation of the language.
Our Department exploits a range of text and digital teaching resources, as well exposing students to the cultural context of the language through film, music and current affairs.
All students start French in Year 7 and then select either German or Spanish in Year 8. At GCSE almost all students take one or more of these languages: the GCSE course aims to equip students with the skills to communicate in a variety of contexts with confidence, as well as to broaden their cultural horizons.
The AQA MFL A level courses develop the students’ linguistic skills, alongside their understanding of the culture and society of countries where their chosen language is spoken. A level language students study texts and film and have the opportunity to carry out independent research on an area of their choice.
Our A level students attend a range of university language conferences and master classes; in recent years they have travelled to Cambridge for a translation course, to the BFI for a Film Study Day, to the Insitut Français and to the Goethe Institute in London.
We place a great deal of importance on offering our students the opportunity to travel. Recent trips have included the Opal Coast, Normandy, Paris and Berlin.
We participate in a range of competitions, such as the Anthea Bell Prize for Young Translators, The Stephen Spender Prize, Oxford University’s Flash Fiction competition and GCHQ’s National Language Competition.