Modern Foreign Languages (Senior - Academic Curriculum)

The Modern Languages Department at St. Benedict’s has a long tradition of teaching French, German and Spanish in innovative and dynamic ways. For instance a teaching group in the course of a week will have spent time using cutting-edge computer technology, taken advantage of a language laboratory to help their listening and speaking skills, worked closely with a native speaker language assistant and spent some time in a classroom where the latest interactive whiteboards form an integral part of the teaching. In addition, this group will have visited Paris or Berlin or Madrid over half-term, spent a day in a top London research library in order to prepare exam orientated project work and, finally, attended a workshop on sign language!

All of this variety leads to consistently outstanding examination results, ever increasing numbers of pupils choosing to pursue language studies and, most importantly, a sense of insight and excitement about other languages and cultures. European Languages Day last year involved a host of activities and revealed that thirty languages are spoken by staff and pupils in the school. All of this helps to explain our current success and provides an excellent platform for our next stage of development - a new state of the art languages suite which will take us firmly into the 21st century. Our future within this dynamic school is one we approach with considerable excitement.