Carrickfergus Academy
Languages
Subject Leader
Mrs L. Haddock
Teaching Staff
Mrs H. Boyd
Mrs T. Byers
Ms S. Fox
Mrs D. McClure
Mrs K. McKeown
Mrs M. O’Neill
Key Stage Three
¡Hola! / Bonjour!
Learning a modern language is so important nowadays, especially now that travel abroad for both business and pleasure has never been so common. In Carrickfergus Academy we strive to foster a love of language learning within the pupils in our care, and we strongly believe that learning a second language can have so many benefits for pupils of all abilities.
Year 8
Here in Carrickfergus Academy, pupils in Year 8 study a variety of languages on a weekly basis (Spanish two periods, French, two periods).
Topics covered are:
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Greetings
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Alphabet
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Numbers 1-31
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Days, months and dates
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In class
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Family & pets
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Café and meals
In addition, we are fortunate enough to have the Confucius Programme running in the Academy, therefore our Year 8 pupils also have the opportunity of sampling some Mandarin Chinese (1 period a week).
Year 9
Pupils in Year 9 study both Spanish and French for two periods a week.
Topics covered are:
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Family
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Descriptions
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Daily routine
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Hobbies & interests
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School
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Weather
Year 10
In Year 10, the last year of Key Stage 3, pupils receive two periods of both Spanish and French.
Topics covered are:
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Free time / making plans
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Keeping fit & healthy
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Household chores
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World of work
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Town & countryside
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Shopping for clothes
Key Stage Four
Pupils can choose to continue studying Spanish or French for GCSE, and currently our pupils studying Spanish GCSE are following the AQA 9-1 specification. Throughout their time learning another language, pupils will also have the opportunity to develop a number of skills appropriate for the world of work, such as teamwork and problem solving, and these are an integral part of lessons.
Topics covered include:
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Relationships
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Home and local area
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Life at school
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Leisure time
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Health and lifestyle
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Customs & celebrations
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Tourism
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Environmental issues
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Education and career plans
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Technology
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Social issues
The MFL Department has access to a wide range of fully up to date resources to help pupils navigate their way through the new style GCSE.
Post 16
On reaching the stage of 6th Form, our pupils can opt to study Spanish or French for A’ Level through the Carrickfergus Learning Community (CLC). During recent years, we have had a number of our pupils who have opted to study languages to a more advanced level via this route.
Extra-curricular
Every year pupils in both key stages take part in a range of activities to celebrate the European Day of Languages. This is an annual event that is held every September with the aim of increasing students’ knowledge of other countries and languages, as well as the relevancy of studying a language.
In the MFL Department of Carrickfergus Academy, we also subscribe to Linguascope,(www.linguascope.com) a games based website. This is fully suitable for language learners of any level, and as well as using this as a teaching tool within the classroom or computer suite, and we also encourage our pupils to make use of this resource at home, or indeed at any time (app. available also).