Modern Foreign Languages
Our Modern Foreign Languages department equips our students with the skills to speak a foreign language to a high level of fluency, giving you a critical edge in the highly competitive and globalised market for jobs.
Curriculum Intent
At Poole High School, our French curriculum aims to develop confident, independent and culturally aware linguists who can communicate effectively in an increasingly interconnected world. Through the study of language, culture and society, students deepen their understanding of France and the French-speaking world while developing the linguistic skills needed to engage with authentic texts, ideas and perspectives.
Students build fluency and confidence in speaking, listening, reading and writing, enabling them to communicate with increasing accuracy, spontaneity and sophistication. Through the exploration of contemporary social, cultural and political issues, students develop a broader understanding of global perspectives and the similarities and differences between cultures.
Our curriculum encourages curiosity about the wider world and promotes respect for diverse viewpoints and experiences. Students engage with a range of authentic media, literature and film, developing critical thinking, analytical skills and cultural understanding while using French as a vehicle for discussion and debate.
By studying French, students develop highly transferable skills including communication, problem-solving, independence, resilience and adaptability. These skills are valued across a wide range of professions and provide an excellent foundation for further study, international opportunities and careers in fields such as business, law, tourism, diplomacy, education, marketing and translation.
Ultimately, our French curriculum empowers students to become confident global citizens who can use language to connect with others, broaden their horizons and succeed in an increasingly international society.
Key Stage 3
Throughout Key Stage 3, we teach the Physical French Phonics in order to empower students with the ability to pronounce words independently as well as improving their listening and spelling skills.
Grammar is taught gradually, consistently and explicitly across the department as well as across year groups. Our clear and simple explanations are reinforced with active practice.
Our French Knowledge Organisers, which are fully integrated into lessons and home learning tasks, also enable students to develop the essential discipline of practising actively, little and often in order to build durable long-term memories. As students know more and remember more, they will see their personal average grow in our vocabulary league table and their class may even win one of the termly prizes.
In addition, students will be inspired to appreciate the relevance of speaking another language in the wider world, not only by the expert and consistent use of the target language by their teachers, but also by the cultural information and traditions integrated into the curriculum. Students will benefit at least once a term from our video library of interviews that we have carried out with people who use their languages in their professional lives.
Culture
Students will be inspired to appreciate the relevance of speaking another language in the wider world, not only by the expert use of the target language by their teachers, but also by continual references to the opportunities that language skills can provide, both at home and abroad. The MFL curriculum strives to provide opportunities to use the language on a practical ‘real-life’ level through projects, such as writing to students in the French Alps.
Key Stage 4
More than 220 million people speak French and French is the sixth most widely spoken language in the world. French is also the only other language, alongside English, which is taught in every country of the world.
The UK trades with over 200 countries worldwide. UK businesses need people with language skills and knowledge of a language is a unique selling point and a qualification that employers respect. Studying a language can also help you get into Further Education; many courses at university now ask for a language qualification, regardless of the subject of the course. You will be able to communicate for travel or work and enjoy new cultures.
French is an academic subject, which will enable you to develop a number of transferrable skills; such as the ability to communicate, analyse, problem solve, work under pressure, take risks and be creative.
Topics include:
Identity and culture
Local, national, international and global areas of interest
Current and future study and employment
