German

The Languages Department has continued to enjoy success in public examinations. At A Level all students taking German and 80% of those taking French achieved A grades and at GCSE 45% of students in German and 37% in French achieved A* or A grades. 2011 will see the first sizeable cohort of GCSE Spanish students and we look forward to some impressive results.

The carousel for Y7 students gives students a useful introduction to all three languages. There has been some fine-tuning to the system in Year 8: students now study French together with either German or Spanish. In Y9 the more able linguists carry on with both languages; the majority continue with one foreign language of their choice to GCSE level.

A Modern Languages Club operates at Wednesday lunchtime and this permits students to improve their language skills further through fun activities in the Language Lab and ICT rooms. It is particularly beneficial for those students, particularly Year 8 and Year 9, who wish to keep up or refresh their knowledge of two to three languages. All pupils in the Preparatory School have continued to benefit from French lessons taught by a native speaker who also gives conversation practice to A Level students.

There was another very successful German exchange with the Evangelisches Firstwald Gymnasium near Stuttgart. A party of ten students visited Germany at the end of June. They enjoyed excursions to the Burg Hohenzollern and Lake Constance as well as spending a couple of days in school and the weekends with host families, sampling German life and watching the World Cup.