Modern Foreign Languages
So which Modern Languages can you study at Sackville?
Let’s start with French which is taught to everyone through to GCSE. The exam course is the new specification of Edexcel, which is studied in Years 10 and 11 with continuous assessment of written and spoken French. The Listening and reading exams are taken in June of year 10 and they count for 40% of the final grade. Anyone who wants to improve their grade can then retake in year 11. Two oral recordings and two controlled writing assessments are sent to the exam board for marking and moderating to make up the next 60% of the grade.
In year 8 a second foreign language is introduced to those who cope well with French. This gives students a chance to be double linguists at GCSE as they can chose to continue with this language as an Option after Year 9. At present the second language is Spanish but we have some students going through who began German in year 8.
Nothing is set in stone in Modern Languages and over the years we have helped a Russian boy to take his Russian GCSE in Year 9, a boy from Mauritius to do his French GCSE in Year 7 and a French boy to have his GCSE, AS and A2 French under his belt before the 6th Form. Obviously one to one tuition is not ideal in a language lesson but we try to cater for your needs.
At A level we follow the new specification of the OCR board. Students can choose to take AS alone or to do the full two years. In 2010 we had a double linguist at A level, a student who passed the full French and German A levels.
If you ask a Sackville student, past or present about Modern Languages at Sackville, they will always mention the “trips”. Just going back over the last five years we have been to the Loire Valley, the French Alps, Paris, Boulogne, Christmas markets in Cologne and Strasbourg, Venice and the Bay of Naples travelling by coach, Eurostar and ‘plane. Many of these were repeat visits.
We organise “Bastille Day” events in the summer including a thrilling “Tour de Sackville” by cycle around our extensive grounds and we have some keen petanque players.
The most common question I am asked on Open Days is “Can a student who is dyslexic study a foreign language?” The answer is a resounding “Yes” and our teachers are totally in tune with the problems dyslexic students might encounter and we work hand in hand with Learning Support to facilitate a smooth ride through to GCSE for all. Unlike state schools, we do not discriminate due to ability. That said, our GCSE results are always above the country’s average, 92% A* to C for French and 100% for Spanish in 2010.
