Modern Languages Department | |
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Teaching Staff Mrs E Deadman (Head of Faculty) Miss H McKenna (Second in Faculty) Ms L Brown (Partnership Co-ordinator) Miss M Morales-Nevado Mrs M Renneteau-Allen Miss N Thaly (French Co-ordinator) Miss M Coto-Diaz (Spanish Language Assistant) Miss A Soutan (French Language Assistant) Mrs J Zhang (Chinese Language Assistant) St. Birinus School gained a second specialist status in April 2006 and we are now in the privileged position of having a dual specialism. To add to the Here at St.Birinus, we make use of the state of the art data projectors in every language classroom and trips abroad to increase motivation and understanding of foreign cultures. We have also established links with local primary schools and a team of three teachers regularly visit them to deliver Spanish lessons at Key Stages 2 and also run project days for primary students to increase their awareness of Hispanic cultures. At present, there are 8 full time Language Teachers plus a French, Spanish and Chinese Foreign Language Assistant. The French and Spanish language assistants are used across both Key Stage 3 and Key Stage 4 to enrich pupils' understanding of the subject. The Chinese Foreign Language Assistant adds to pupils' cultural awareness by visiting primary schools. French and Spanish are the main Foreign Languages taught at the school and all students study a language from years 7 to 11. The vast majority of our boys take a language at GCSE, with many pupils opting to study both French and Spanish. The department also offers a Certificate of Achievement. The MFL department runs a series of lunchtime clubs and language surgeries, which cover not only French and Spanish, but also German, Italian, Latin and Chinese. Since becoming a Language College, St Birinus also offers evening classes in French, Spanish and Italian aimed at staff, parents and the wider community. If you are interested in any evening class please contact the main school reception for further details. Primary Lessons This year we have continued to offer MFL support to our Partnership Primary Schools. By 2010, primary school pupils will have a statutory entitlement to learn a foreign language, and SBS have continued to offer support to their primary colleagues to help them to meet this deadline. We have offered 1 hour a fortnight to each primary to help KS2 staff to prepare to teach MFL. We have had a great year going into the local primaries, and have come back with some great experiences and having had a lot of fun. It is fantastic to see the enthusiasm and interest of the younger students, and it bodes very well for their future language learning. We have covered topics including days, months, numbers, animals, greetings and many more. It has given some teachers a good chance to meet the future Year 7s at St Birinus as well as allowing all the children to meet teachers from the “Big School”. International Connections We are now focusing very much as a faculty and a school on our involvement, in global projects, overseas trips and our readiness to receive visitors to our school from a wide range of countries. In July 2009 for the second year running a trip to Madrid will take place for Year 8 students. In collaboration with the Humanities Faculty a trip was organised to Sorrento and the surrounding area. In April 2008 we hosted 23 French students and their teachers from our partner school, College des Buclos, Grenoble (our twinning town). During the visit each French student followed a busy programme of events as they followed their English 'partner' for the day. Our most recent delegation of visiting teachers was from Japan and they gained an insight into our English educational system adn experienced the diverse range of subjects you are being taught at St Birinus.
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