Staff
M R Boyd BA (Head of French Department)
K M Cryer BA
D A Wilson BA
Mlle E Caillet (French Assistante)
Aims
We teach French to all boys in the first four years of the senior school, and we try to make the experience an enjoyable and rewarding one which will encourage them to continue their language studies to a higher level after GCSE and to see language learning in general as a worthwhile activity. We also aim to increase the boys’ knowledge and appreciation of France and things French.
Outline of Work
We realize that some boys will already have begun to study French at primary school, but we assume no previous knowledge at the beginning of the First Form. The boys are taught in form groups in the First and Second Forms, and in the Third and Fourth Forms they are setted. They are prepared for the AQA GCSE which they all take at the end of the Fourth Form. In all four years there are five lessons each week, and usually there is one lesson on each day.
In the Fifth Form boys may choose to continue to study French in a course which is unexamined and is a bridge to A Level. Many boys choose not to follow this one year course, but resume their French studies in the Sixth Form, and are not at all disadvantaged by the year’s break. In the Sixth and Seventh Forms we prepare the boys for the AQA AS and A2 examinations. Usually there are two groups of boys in both years. Each group is taught by two teachers and has eight lessons each week.
Resources and teaching methods
In the First to Fourth Forms we use the Encore Tricolore text book supplemented by readers. Post GCSE we use a variety of books and find that the internet is a most valuable resource for good up-to-date material. We have an extensive library of French books and videos. We aim to expose the boys to as much French as possible during their time in the classroom, but we do not aspire to an English-free zone in lessons. French will be used wherever possible, but a realistic approach demands that one uses English whenever necessary to ensure that the boys are understanding what is being taught. We encourage the boys to speak French as much as possible.
Extra-curricular activities
Every year during the May half-term holiday a week’s holiday to France is arranged for boys in the first four years. We visit a different French region every year, and in May 2007 we plan to go to La Rochelle on France’s Atlantic coast. For boys in the Sixth and Seventh Forms we run a school exchange, together with Bury Grammar School Girls, with a French school in Dijon. The French pupils spend a week in Bury in families, and our pupils spend a week in Dijon during the spring term.