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FRENCH AT ESKDALE
Historical Background
The French department at Eskdale School has been under new leadership since September 2001.
At that time the subject was perceived in a negative light by students, standards of work and behaviour were unsatisfactory and as a result achievement levels were below average.
Since then the department has significantly changed. New course books were invested in almost immediately, a new I.C.T. package was introduced and incorporated into all schemes of work. An emphasis has been placed on the need for a communicative approach to learning French and as a result standards of speaking and listening have risen. Expectations of behaviour are extremely high and all students are able to learn in a calm controlled environment, which had not been the case previously. Expectations are also extremely high in relation to standards of all types of work and levels of achievement have increased significantly in each year group with the majority of students achieving at least their average N.C. level and many achieving above average N.C. levels.
An accelerated G.C.S.E. course was started in year 9 and it’s success was reflected in the first year by the high number who went on to take G.C.S.E. French at key stage 4.
In August 2006 all 15 students who opted to study French Accelerated G.C.S.E. and take their exam one year early achieved *A-C grades. In fact 5 achieved grade A
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Homework Policy
Each class should receive one piece of homework once a week. A piece of written homework should be given to each group at least once every two weeks. Written homework should be completed neatly and handed in on the day requested. Students should be given at least two days notice to complete a piece of written homework. Failure to hand in a piece of written homework will result in a warning and a note to parents in Student Planners. A detention will be given if students still fail to produce their homework after this initial warning. Learning homework will be tested in the form of vocabulary tests which will be marked and recorded in the Teachers Planner. Failure to do a learning homework will lead to students being re-tested and a note to parents in Student Planners if this happens repeatedly. Pupils who produce a high standard of written homework or do very well in vocabulary tests will be rewarded with reward points.
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Materials and Resources
The scheme of work is based on and around the Metro series of course books published by Heinemann. These books are supplemented by a wide range of materials and resources. These include:
Departmental worksheets/Activity sheets
Flashcards
I.C.T. activities pack Metro 1
Quinze Minutes Video
Cassette recordings
O.H.P. presentation sheets
French is taught in a designated classroom and classroom displays are designed to help students speak the language and also create an atmosphere conducive to learning French- e.g. map of France, posters displaying life in France, helpful vocabulary and expressions and examples of pupils work.
An assistant is attached to the French department every two years. They work in the French department one day a week and aid to extra speaking with small groups of pupils.
Rewards and Motivation
Praise is essential in order to promote good learning and a sense of achievement.
In the French department I use a lot of verbal praise especially for good spoken work. Students also receive Reward Points for good work, Reward sheets and Merits for ‘Excellent work’ and end of Unit Tests
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ICT
Pupils have a booked I.T. lesson every half term, i.e., 6 times year. During this lesson pupils get a chance to do listening and reading tasks through a different medium and to learn vocabulary through games in a fun way. Pupils also get the chance to word process at least one piece of written work that they have done in the class
Target Language
Students need to be exposed to as much of the target language as possible if they are to make good progress. Pupils are encouraged to use French as much as possible when asking for things and most instructions where practical are given in the target language.
In order to build up a good student-teacher relationship English is also used at times to avoid student resentment or frustration
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