Year 7
All students study French in Year 7. Over the course of the year, students develop four key skills: listening, reading, writing and speaking, whilst learning both about the culture of France as well as understanding how to manipulate the French language. We look at a range of different topics that provide pupils with a secure understanding of linguistic structures that can be applied as they progress through KS3 and into KS4.
An overview of the topics covered during Year 7 is shown below:
Term 1
- An general introduction to French (phonetics, alphabet, greetings, numbers, age)
- Talking about brothers and sisters using avoir
- Describing yourself and others
- Talking about likes and dislikes using j’aime/je n’aime pas
- Saying what activities you do using -er verbs
- Telling the time
- Saying what you think of your school subjects and why
- Talking about what you wear to school
- Describing a classroomChristmas in France
Term 2
- Weather and seasons
- Sports and other activities you like to do using jouer
- Discovering sports in French-speaking countries
- Talking about what other people wear
- Taking about what you/others do using faire
- Developing more complex opinions using infinitives
- Asking questions
- Saying which pets you have
- Describing your family and using adjectival agreement
- Describing your home
- Saying what you have for breakfast
Term 3
- Describing your town and where you will go at the weekend using aller
- Inviting someone out
- Food and ordering in a cafe
- Using the future tense to talk about your plans for a visit to Paris
- Bastille Day
- La Tour de France
- Writing a poem in French
- Film study – Le Petit Nicholas
Year 8
All students study French in Year 8. Over the course of the year, students build on the four key skills: listening, reading, writing and speaking that they developed in their first year of French. Alongside this, pupils develop their grammatical and linguistic knowledge further whilst also having the opportunity to explore French and Francophone culture. Our holistic approach to teaching the French language provides pupils with a secure platform as they progress into Year 9 and KS4.
An overview of the topics covered during Year 8 is shown below:
Term 1
- Talking about a usual holiday
- Talking about the summer holidays using the perfect tense with avoir
- Describing a visit to a theme park
- Giving your opinion in the imperfect tense
- Saying where you went and how using être
- Talking about a disastrous trip combining the past tenses and different subjects (je, tu, on)
- Using the present and perfect tense together
- French and Francophone festivals and celebrations
- Revising/developing opinion phrases, adding the infinitive
- Talking about a future school trip
Term 2
- Writing about New Year’s Eve
- Celebrities – revisiting the third person (il/elle) and adjectival agreements
- TV programmes with plural adjectival agreement and prepositions
- Digital technology
- Arranging to go to the cinema
- Talking about leisure activities in the present and past
Term 3
- Talking about daily routine using reflexive verbs
- Talking about moving house
- Combining past, present and future to talk about activities in a new region
- Saying what we can do in a town using the modal verb pouvoir
- Giving opinions about sports
- France’s geography and gastronomy
- Film study: Les Choristes
Year 8 – German or Spanish?
In Year 8, all pupils are given the opportunity to pick up a second modern foreign language – either German or Spanish, depending on what side of the year they are on.
The aim of this is to offer pupils the chance to develop their linguistic skills further and hopefully to increase their interest in the world beyond Lymm! Many pupils at Lymm choose to study a language for GCSE and by learning two languages at key stage 3, this increases their choice and gives them the option to study two languages as a dual linguist.
Over the 2 years (Year 8 and 9), pupils follow a course which is planned to move quickly through the basics (taking advantage of the fact that they have already developed linguistic skills in French).
In Spanish, year 8 pupils study the following:
- Myself, family and friends
- Free time activities – sporty and non-sporty hobbies
- Spanish celebrities
- House and home
- Town and where you live
- Film study: Zapi Zapi
In German, the year 8 course covers the following topics:
- Myself, family and pets
- Free time activities – sporty and non-sporty hobbies
- School and school life
- Where you live
- Visiting a café – buying snacks and drinks
- German geography and the Bundesländer
- Film study: Das Wunder von Bern
Year 9
All students study French in Year 9. During the course of the year, students build on the four key skills: listening, reading, writing and speaking that they developed in their first two years of French. Alongside this, pupils further consolidate and develop their grammatical and linguistic knowledge and continue to learn about French and Francophone culture. Our holistic approach to teaching the French language provides pupils with a secure foundation as they progress into KS4 with the option of studying GCSE French.
An overview of the topics covered during Year 9 is shown below:
Term 1
- Giving opinions on free time activities, with subordinate clauses using quand
- Talking about how you use social media
- Giving your opinion about someone using both the singular and plural
- Describing a birthday using the past tense
- Planning a birthday using the future tense
- Parts of the body
- The benefits of sport and healthy eating
- Keeping fit, using il faut/pour + infinitive
- Plans to stay healthy using the future tense with avoir
- Longer-term plans to stay healthy using the simple future
Term 2
- Taste in music and reasons for opinions
- Saying what you used to do using the imperfect tense
- Talking about your primary school
- Discussing your future and your past
- Talking about part-time jobs using the modal verb pouvoir
- Saying which professions you might like later and why
- Saying what you want to do post-16
- Imagining the world in the future
Term 3
- Discussing what we need to do for the environment
- Talking about animals and the natural world
- Talking about what you would like to do using the conditional
- Discussing where you would like to go
- The importance of Patrimoine to tourism in France
- Film study – Intouchables
In year 9, pupils study the following topics in Spanish:
- School
- Healthy Living
- Holidays (past, present, and future)
- Social media and Television
- Clothes and fashion
- Daily routine
- The Hispanic world with film study – Héroes – Película
- And in German, year 9 work on:
- Holidays (past and present)
- Use of media – TV, film and reading, with film study: Lola rennt
- Shopping, clothes and pocket money using the future tense
- Food, drink and eating out
- Healthy living
- Youth hostels in Germany, with the modal verbs müssen and dürfen
- Daily routine
- Directions
- Festivals