Year 7
All students study French in Year 7. During 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
- Describing a classroom
- Talking about likes and dislikes
- Describing yourself and others
- Saying what activities you do
- Telling the time
- Saying what you think of your school subjects and why
- Christmas in France
Term 2
- Talking about what you wear to school and your school day
- Adjectival agreements
- Learning about a typical French school day
- Weather and seasons
- Sports and other activities you like to do and discovering sports in French-speaking countries
Term 3
- Animals
- Describing your family
- Where you live, places in town and where you go at the weekend
- Inviting someone out
- Food and ordering in a cafe
- Bastille Day
- Using the future tense to talk about your plans for a visit to Paris
Year 8
All students study French in Year 8. During 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 the summer holidays using the perfect tense
- Describing a visit to a theme park
- Saying where you went and how
- Using the present and perfect tense together
- French and Francophone festivals and celebrations
- Buying food at a market
- Talking about a future school trip
Term 2
- Writing about New Year’s Eve
- Celebrities and TV programmes
- Digital technology
- Arranging to go to the cinema
- Talking about leisure activities
- Where you live
Term 3
- Daily routine
- Moving house
- Giving opinions about sports
- Asking and giving directions
- Illness and injuries
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 linguist skills in French).
In Spanish, year 8 pupils study the following:
- Myself, family and friends
- Free time activities
- House and home
- Where you live
- School
In German, the year 8 course covers the following topics:
- A general introduction to Germany and German-speaking countries
- Myself, family and pets
- Free time activities – sporty and non-sporty hobbies
- School and school life
- Where you live
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
- Talking about how you use social media
- Giving your opinion about someone
- Arranging to go out
- Describing a date
- Describing a music event
- Parts of the body
- The benefits of sport and healthy eating
- Keeping fit
Term 2
- Describing jobs
- The importance of learning languages
- Saying what you used to do using the imperfect tense
- Discussing your future and your past
- Talking about part-time jobs
- Discussing holidays
- Imagining adventure holidays
- Talking about what you take on holiday
- Describing what happened on holiday
- Visiting tourist attractions
Term 3
- Discussing what you are allowed to do
- Explaining what’s important to you
- Talking about things you buy
- Describing what makes you happy
- Learning about human rights issues
- Film study
In year 9, pupils study the following topics in Spanish:
- Healthy Living
- Holidays (past present and future)
- Social media and Television
- Clothes and fashion
- Daily routine
- The Hispanic world
And in German, year 9 work on:
- Holidays (past and present)
- Use of media – TV and film
- Shopping, clothes and pocket money
- Food, drink and eating out
- Daily routine
- Healthy living