If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.
                                                                                                   Nelson Mandela

Core values? Attributes of our students- known and desired? 

We aspire to be our best and to do our best for others 

• To ensure high quality outcomes for all students, irrespective of their personal circumstance. 

• To maintain a broad and balanced curriculum for all key stages which includes ample opportunity for stretching our students. 

• To celebrate the successes of our alumni, creating positive role models to raise the aspirations of all students.  

• To provide additional support to ensure all students are able to strive to reach their potential. 

To deliver a robust curriculum whereby an increasing number of students access the EBACC. 

We respect ourselves and others 

• To teach our students to respect one another’s beliefs and opinions. To create a safe society within schools which allows all students to flourish emotionally as well as academically. 

• To develop students’ understanding of wider issues they or their peers may face in life. 

Our learning knows no limits 

• To constantly strive to improve the experience of everyone at Guilsborough.  

• To constantly review the curriculum offer for our students to ensure it continues to improve. 

• To respect the value of learning outside of the classroom, providing a rich range of experiences for all students. 

• To ensure all students follow an appropriate programme of study centred on their individual needs. 

• To maintain that all stakeholders are learners who strive to constantly improve.  

• To develop a life-long love of learning 

We are global citizens ready for the 21st Century 

• To prepare all students for an ever-changing world of work by developing the skills they need to adapt to technological advances. 

• To ensure we never miss an opportunity to improve the literacy and numeracy of our students. 

• To allow our students to experience first-hand interaction with employers throughout their time at Guilsborough. 

• The Framework of our intent 

  Our curriculum aims:  

• To develop knowledge, behaviours, and skills – including communication, tolerance, resilience, analysis and memory skills. 

• To prepare learners for life in modern Britain and abroad by teaching aspects of foreign culture and highlighting cultural similarities and differences. 

• To lay the foundation skills for GCSE style examination at KS3. To bridge to gap between KS4 and KS5 (skills, knowledge and content). Students routinely learn transferable skills throughout each key stage. Further in-depth study of themes and topics undertaken at each Key Stage. 

• To provide an adaptive approach to teaching - teaching to the top whilst scaffolding learning to support students of all abilities. 

• To cover a range of themes and topics at each Key Stage. 

• To create and maintain meaningful links to other department areas, skills and knowledge. 

• To improve memory skills, which enable students to retain and recall information (5-a-day starters = interleaving, vocabulary tests = memory skills & retrieval practice). 

• Here are some of the key features you can expect from the MFL department: 

• Variety of tasks every lesson to foster passion and engagement, develop skills and increase confidence through communication in a foreign language. 

• Memory skills developed at each Key Stages. 

• Books show high standards of presentation and progression with consistency across classes. 

• Written work and assessments are marked with whole class/personalised feedback on how to improve. Students respond to feedback to fill gaps in knowledge/develop work. 

• All learners are supported and challenged in their learning. 

• Data is used to inform teaching and seating plans. 

• High expectations for all learners including DS/SEND. 

• Team leaders in MFL share expertise and lead the moderation and Quality Assurance process. 

• Staffing/timetable ensures teacher skills suited to classes where possible. 

• To do this, we ensure that: 

• Knowledge of a range of topics taught through all 4 skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing). Grammatical knowledge built upon across each Key Stage. Opportunities provided to deal with authentic texts.  

• We teach using appropriate and up-to-date pedagogy (e.g. 5-a-day starter tasks = interleaving, choral drilling with dual-coding = pronunciation and intonation for different learning style preferences, 3-stage-questioning = internalising new language, mini-plenaries = assess progress, plenary = review attainment, etc).   

• Range of independent learning tasks throughout the curriculum and homework aim to build learners resilience, confidence and improve attainment and progress. 

• Exam skills and strategies delivered in class with opportunities provided to apply these independently under controlled conditions. E.g. Acronyms & Mind-maps for essay writing / Rubrics / (near) cognates / False friends / Looking for clues in titles and pictures, / deducing meaning through context / using bilingual dictionaries and glossaries, etc. 

• KS3 assessments match the style of the 2024 GCSE. KS4 assessments and A-level assessments mirror the style of the AQA assessment. 

• Literacy taught and developed across each Key Stage with grammatical terminology. 

• KS3/4/5 WAGOLLS deployed to share good practice and place emphasis on students to improve responses.   

• KS3: We develop our own tailor-made resources through collaborative planning to ensure consistency across the department. Each classroom has a set of whiteboards, dictionaries and text books to support teaching. We also subscribe to Pearson Active Teach (Stimmt), Kerboodle (Claro), Quizlet and SentenceBuilders.com to support independent learning. 

• KS4: We use the AQA exam board at GCSE. We develop our own tailor-made resources through collaborative planning to ensure consistency across the department. Each classroom has a set of whiteboards, dictionaries and text books to support teaching. We also subscribe to Pearson Active Teach (Viva), Kerboodle (German & Spanish), Exampro, Quizlet and SentenceBuilders.com to support independent learning and the development of exam technique. 

• KS5: We offer Spanish and German and use Kerboodle AQA online resources as well as self-produced booklets and authentic resources which are included in our Super Curriculum document  eg. News, literature, film etc. 

• We use MS Teams to that we can share resources to support pupils’ progress and attainment. 

• Our aims are to provide all students with a rewarding and enjoyable experience of languages. We will prepare students to become confident communicators who are able to apply their knowledge to both familiar and unfamiliar contexts which will foster a deeper understanding and appreciation of other cultures on a local, national, and international stage.

• To provide robust assessments plotted throughout Key Stages 3-5. Formative feedback is a common and consistent feature at each Key Stage; Learning for students and staff is a continuous cycle. 

Guilsborough Academy Vision	How we embed this
We aspire to be our best and to do our best for others.	High expectations in every lesson with a drive to make rapid progress.  Pair work and group work encourage/foster relationships between peers.  Assessments enable students to understand how to improve.
We respect ourselves and others.	High quality CRAFT and reflection encourages our students to respect and be proud of achievements but also recognise the next steps.
Our learning knows no limits.	Every lesson challenges but also supports learning through extension work.  Support and scaffolding is available for every learner.
We are global citizens ready for the 21st Century	Our curriculum provides a broad and balanced range of topics including personal/social/environmental/global/economic/political  Appreciation and respect of different cultures, customs and traditions.

Our Spanish curriculum journey shows how we develop the skills of our students and the topics the students cover in each year. Click on our learning journey below to view it in more detail.

What is Spanish like at Guilsborough?

Please watch our short video to see what studying Spanish at Guilsborough is like.

 

 

Spanish lessons in Guilsborough are engaging and fun, I always look forward to my next lesson. Learning a language is such an important skill and I am thankful the lessons we have always teach me something new.

Erin, Year 7 student

Language lessons for me are an opportunity to experience different countries’ culture, just by learning the language

Emma, Year 10 student

 

Where will German take me past Year 11?

SIXTH FORM

 

If you enjoyed learning languages at GCSE, you may consider studying a language in Sixth form. We offer;

A level German

A level Spanish

Please click on the different courses to explore studying these subjects at Guilsborough Sixth Form.

The courses build on the knowledge, understanding and skills gained at GCSE. It constitutes an integrated study with a focus on language, culture and society. It fosters a range of transferable skills, including communication, critical thinking and creativity, which are valuable to the Individual society. We will be looking on how German and Spanish speaking society has been shaped, socially and culturally, and how it continues to change. You will study aspects of the social context together with aspects of artistic life of German & Spanish speaking countries.

You will develop understanding of themes to the society and culture of the countries where German and Spanish is spoken. You will be using authentic spoken and written sources in German and Spanish. We will be also studying a film in Year 12 and a book in Year 13.

CAREERS

Language skills can be used in almost any career, and particularly in businesses that trade internationally. Some examples of typical careers are listed below, although this is not an exhaustive list:

Interpreter

Teacher / Private tutor

Translator

Broadcast journalist

Diplomatic service officer

International aid worker

International law

International sports physiotherapist

Logistics and distribution manager

Marketing executive

Useful resources to support learning in Spanish

These resources are useful for students to help consolidate knowledge learnt in lessons and to aid revision ;