Languages are an integral part of Beechen Cliff School. We are a highly committed team dedicated to developing confident linguists in a stimulating and creative learning environment with a strong focus on actively using and understanding the language in lessons.
We offer French, German, Italian and Spanish from KS3 through to A level.
All pupils study French from Year 7 to Year 9. In Year 8 and Year 9 most pupils will study an additional language alongside French: either Spanish, Italian or German.
We believe that learning a foreign language is a skill for life and that cultural knowledge promotes greater tolerance, empathy and acceptance of others. Furthermore, the knowledge of a language can significantly increase a person’s employability and our aim is that pupils leave school as competent linguists. We encourage all our pupils to continue their study of languages in Year 10 and Year 11.
The uptake at GCSE is very high in all four languages with over 70% of pupils continuing to study languages at Key Stage 4. Our results are consistently above the national average of boys’ attainment at GCSE.
The study of languages at A level is very popular at Beechen Cliff School. We offer the study of French, German, Italian and Spanish at A Level. Students also have timetabled weekly conversation practice with native speaker foreign language assistants in order to develop their fluency.
We believe that all pupils should have the opportunity to visit the country where the language is spoken and gain first-hand experience of the culture and language. There are a wide range of residential trips and exchanges to France, Germany, Italy and Spain available to pupils at all Key Stages.
We value the cultural and linguistic diversity of our bi-lingual pupils and provide support to those who wish to extend their knowledge of their first language or gain qualifications in their native tongue wherever possible.
For information on the curriculum for languages please see the downloads below.
For extra resources to support learning please see the faculty microsite below.