Modern Foreign Languages

Vision

Our MFL curriculum vision and intent is for students to ‘Dare to Shine’. We achieve this by:

  • Fostering students’ curiosity about the world around them.
  • Providing them with opportunities to access other cultures while deepening their understanding of their own.
  • Developing their communication skills.
  • Learning new ways of thinking.

Curriculum overview

The Spanish and French curriculums are designed to enable students to respond to, and understand, a variety of texts including authentic resources to expose them to the target culture and broaden their horizons. Across all key stages, we educate our students on a variety of topics such as holidays, free time activities, local area, school and future ambitions. Students not only get the chance to consider these topics from their own perspective, but they also gain a wider understanding of these topics in the context of Spanish-speaking countries to examine cultural differences.

At Key Stage 3 we embed a strong understanding of grammatical concepts and knowledge of vocabulary which enables students to learn topics outside of their main interests. At Key Stage 4, we build upon the foundations which have been laid at Key Stage 3 and deepen students’ existing knowledge of vocabulary and grammar to allow students to articulate their thoughts and ideas in more detail, and to think critically about local and global issues.

OBA language students are inspired to show courage by taking themselves out of their comfort zone and speaking and writing in a foreign language using a minimum of three tenses. Our wide variety of themes and topics covered provide students with an insight into making good life choices, ranging from how to interact appropriately with their peers, to making future plans.

All KS3 students study Spanish when they join OBA, it is then an option, but highly recommended subject, at GCSE and A Level.

We are also pleased to offer French as an option in Year 8, for study to study as an additional language.

Learning another language enables you to gain appreciation and awareness of different cultures. At OBA students develop their knowledge of the language through learning a range of vocabulary and grammar structures across a wide variety of topics. From KS3 through to KS5 students gain desirable skills that will well equip them for future study or job opportunities, such as communication, working as part of a team and problem solving.

Please download the Spanish learning journey below.