Curriculum & Assessment

Click KS3 or KS4 for Curriculum Maps

Learning a language is an amazing opportunity. One which should be open to everyone. It is not just for the brightest or for those who want to use it in their career. It opens up a world of opportunity to the aspiring globetrotter, the casual holidaymaker or the dreamer, wanting to move abroad to live in one of the world’s many exciting destinations.

Years 7 to 9 at Fernhill offer an exciting introduction to this journey. From the early conversational parts of language learning, to discovering the delights of European culture, we aim, both in and outside of the classroom to inspire in every child a love of language learning and an appreciation of other cultures.

Students in Key Stage 3 study either French or Spanish, alternating each year. As our school grows, we aim to increase the number of young people opting to study a language at GCSE and possibly to offer the opportunity to study a second language.

When the world goes back to “normal”, we are aiming to offer students the opportunity to visit France and Spain. We run a successful Spanish-Art trip to Barcelona as well as a day trip to Boulogne.  The Food Technology department also offers a trip to France to its Year 10 students.

In Year 10 students can expect to study some overlapping topic areas from Key Stage 3, but they will develop their core vocabulary and learn more complex structures and tenses in all four skills ( listening, reading, speaking and writing) on Themes 1: Identity and culture and Theme 2: Local, national, international and global areas of interest,

In Year 11, students will study Theme 3 on Current and future study and employment. From January until their exams start in April, students will be focusing mainly on recapping all structures, grammar and key language covered during the whole of the GCSE course.