The World Languages Faculty at Our Lady of Sion School offers French and Spanish from Year 7 to A- Level. We have a generous amount of curriculum time for both languages which allow students to truly connect, not just with the language they are learning but also understand more about the culture of countries from the French and Spanish-speaking world. Our teachers are subject specialists with a combined total of more than 40 years’ experience in teaching languages.
All students have three 40-minute periods a week of each language at Key Stage 3. They are taught in mixed-ability form groups in Years 7 and 8 and then are set in Year 9 in preparation for the GCSE Foundation and Higher tiers (see below). Sion has adopted the NCELP method of languages teaching, developed by the University of York, which focuses on high-frequency, “real-world” language from day one of Year 7. Students are not taught by topic area any longer but learn the most often-used phrases in each language, and there is a real emphasis on the sound of language (sometimes called Phonics) to encourage excellent pronunciation and communication skills.
All students have weekly vocabulary tests, conducted either online or in-lesson. In addition, there are two main assessments in each year which focus on speaking, reading and listening skills in alignment with the new GCSE which is being introduced in 2024.
While a language at GCSE is optional at Sion, it’s our expectation that the vast majority of students will elect to take their language learning through to a public examination. Students have four 40-minute lessons a week in each language. The current GCSE is being phased out in 2026 so September 2023 will be the last time we will teach to the legacy AQA course which covers topics as varied as holidays, home town, future plans and the environment. From 2024, we will begin teaching the new specification which focuses much more on the spoken word and comprehension skills, and the use of a fixed set of 1,200 or 1,500 high-frequency words, the intention being to make the GCSE more relevant to real-life Spanish or French.
There are Foundation and Higher tiers at GCSE and the exam is open to all abilities.
We are now able to offer a full range of exchanges and trips again. Current plans include an exchange with our sister school in Grenoble, a gastronomic tour of Barcelona and a day-trip to Europe’s largest aquarium at Boulogne-sur-Mer.
All Year 7 students take part in the Foreign Language Spelling Bee, which is a national competition organised by Routes Into Languages. We start with class competitions and then take 2-3 students through to the regional finals in the spring term, with Nationals being held in the summer term.
A co-educational, independent school with a strong ethos, successfully providing education to children and young people from ages 3 – 18
