The Modern Foreign Language Department at Portchester School is staffed by three full-time staff each with a well-resourced room. Each room has an interactive whiteboard connected to a computer which runs from the school’s network.
Staff members and volunteer collaborators from other areas in the community make a significant contribution to the work of the department as a whole, and take an active part in the development of schemes of work and resources. We hold regular department meetings and share good practice and ideas. The team is supportive toward each other and in its approach to the various needs of the students.
KS3
At Key Stage 3 we have developed shared schemes of work which identify what we want the students to learn. We use assessment tasks appropriate to the level of each class every half-term to monitor and reward students’ learning. These assessments cover the four areas of language learning: speaking, reading, writing and listening.
At the end of Key Stage 3, students studying French are entered in the AQA Foundation Certificate of Secondary Education (FCSE) to give them a qualification in French for their past three years of study. Students studying Spanish are entered for the AQA Entry Level Exam to also receive a qualification in Spanish. In both exams, skills in reading, writing, listening and speaking are assessed.
KS4
At Key Stage 4, students have the option of choosing French or Spanish at GCSE
level. We follow the Edexcel French and Spanish guidelines and enter students for at the foundation and higher levels for listening and reading papers. Spoken interactions are vital to success at GCSE levels as is coursework, the written component of the exam.
We offer the opportunity for non-native English speakers to take the GCSE in their first language as well. Polish, Russian, Portuguese, Arabic, Turkish, and German are just some of the other GCSEs that students sat this year.
Students
The range of ability of our students is very wide, and we do our best to ensure that students who need support of whatever kind are identified and assisted.
After the first half term in year 7 students are grouped by ability to ensure more able students are stretched, and comparatively weaker students are given the support and attention they need to guarantee good progress.
Outside Classroom
The MFL Department aims to involve as many students as possible in language learning. Extra support for Key Stage 4 pupils is offered every Monday after school. Equally, students of every level are aware of our open door policy should they have queries about languages.
We collaborate actively with Bournemouth School for Boys to offer selected year 9 and 10 students the Foreign Language Leaders Award (FLLA).
We are also looking forward to parent evenings and international days to emphasize cross-curricular links with languages and other departments.
Portchester has been recently invited to participate in exchanges with schools abroad and we hope to offer this opportunity to students in the near future.
Modern Foreign Languages
