Part-time MFL Teacher 0.3 FTE

The MFL department is a successful and hardworking team of three part time, and one full-time member of staff with a very clear vision of raising attainment across the ability range. Staff are enthusiastic about the benefits and experiences of learning MFL themselves and offer all pupils the opportunity to learn three modern foreign languages through engaging and high-quality lessons.

The department has a committed approach to its work and there is a high degree of co-operation and creativity. French is taught by teachers from the MFL department from the Nursery through to Year 6. All Lower school pupils have one lesson a week (35 minutes), following a SOW that builds age/stage appropriate grammar, vocabulary and skills progression. This year, we expanded the MFL provision in Year 6 from bi-weekly, to weekly lessons in both Spanish and German. Module one of the current Year 7 syllabus is taught to the Year 6 pupils in each of the three languages to help strengthen the transition between KS2 and KS3 and to allow the pupils to make more confident and rapid progress in Year 7.

In Year 7 pupils are taught French as a core language, alongside either German or Spanish, which they choose after taster courses in the Autumn term of Year 7. Having made their second language choice, they continue to learn these two languages from January of Year 7 until the end of KS3.

At GCSE, French, German and Spanish courses are offered and there are opportunities for pupils to study two languages should they wish. The three languages are equally popular with similar numbers opting for each at GCSE. We currently have one after-school French GCSE group (Year 10). We also support bilingual pupils who wish to take early entry GCSE. All pupils follow the AQA GCSE specifications at Key Stage 4.

Our 2022 GCSE Results (averaged across French, German, Spanish) were 4+ = 100%, 5+ = 94%, 7+ = 53% [national = 33%] 8+ = 47% and each year several pupils go on to study a language at A Level at one of the local sixth form colleges.

Teaching and Learning

Innovation in Teaching and Learning lies at the heart of this department and it is continually evolving and developing. Pre-covid, staff had the opportunity to attend the annual MFL conference at Chichester University and all of us have attended courses by Gianfranco Conti, whose research into LAM, input flooding techniques and use of Sentence Builders has influenced our practice.

This September we started to trial the NCELP approach with our Year 7 Spanish group. The department welcomes new ideas and has a strong ethos of sharing good practice across the school and also hosting and training Chichester University PGCE students, who we value as a source of inspiration to help us develop our own practice.

Resources

The Department is well resourced. Teaching staff use a range of bespoke resources which are shared across the department and access is available to Dynamo, Studio, Viva, Stimmt and Echo textbooks. We subscribe to electronic versions of these textbooks across KS3 and KS4 and encourage the use of a wide range of interactive and authentic resources.

There are also subscriptions to Quizlet, Sentence Builders, the Language Gym and Exampro. The department has four teaching rooms, equipped with whiteboards and screens. In December 2019, all Upper School pupils were issued with laptops, the use of which enabled continuous learning during the lockdowns and, on our return to the classroom, has transformed teaching and learning, embedding technology and making learning fully interactive. Whilst we use exercise books as ‘best books’, OneNote is our usual learning platform.

Trips

Pre-covid, our residential visits included the Christmas Markets in Cologne & Lille, a trip to Seville and joint trips with the History Department to the Somme and Berlin. These trips were successful, enriching and popular. Whilst we waited for travel restrictions to be fully lifted, we organised home-based trips to the Goethe-Institut and the Institut français in London, a tapas meal in a local Spanish restaurant, a Spanish film screening of Encanto, linked up with a Spanish school for a Flipgrid video exchange, started a school pen-friend scheme with a school in France. We have developed a partnership with one of our Cognita schools (CEM) in Madrid, Spain. In March 2023, we will host 40 CEM pupils for a school visit and make a return visit in October. Our colleagues in the Lower School have organised a KS2 residential to France in June, which we are supporting. We are in the early planning stages of a residential to Germany for December 2023 and already have ideas for a French trip in 2024. For a small school, we have big plans!

SAFEGUARDING

All young people deserve the right to live and learn in a safe and happy environment. All Meoncross School, staff share the responsibility to promote and safeguard the welfare of children and young people for whom they are responsible or with whom they come into contact. In doing so, staff are expected at all times to adhere to and ensure compliance with the School’s Safeguarding Policies and Procedures.

Cognita Schools are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expects all staff, volunteers and other third parties to share this commitment. Safer recruitment practice and pre-employment background checks will be undertaken before any appointment is confirmed.