Languages at secondary school

DD's school all do French in Year 7. Year 8 the top stream do Mandarin, German and Spanish whilst the others do French and Spanish. I quite like the way the system works although for DD's bilingual friend it did mean she had to do rather unnecessary French lessons in Year 7!

Sadly though I have never been to Morocco, Senegal Algeria or Chad :( My French has very much more boringly been useful in dealings with the European commission (maybe I can change this when I retire )

Surely as well once you've learnt french, you're better placed to then learn Spanish / Italian / Portugese etc? (Or indeed vversa if you do Spanish in school.)
I took French and German through to O level (old!) - then learnt Spanish and later Welsh when I needed them through evening class. But the basics of language learning I got from school, I'm sure I'd have found it much harder to learn what I needed later in life without the grounding I got as a teenager.

Eolian

Perhaps slightly going off the topic of the thread here, but:

I used to teach French, German and Mandarin at secondary level. Mandarin is truly not all that hard.
Grammatically it is far simpler than German or French as the language has no articles or gender, and verbs are not inflected at all.
Pronunciation is different, because of the tones, but not necessarily harder.
Learning to read and write the characters is, of course, the most time-consuming part of Chinese, but not nearly as daunting as it might appear before one has started learning. Around 80% are essentially phonetic, so once some of the basics have been memorised, the others essentially build on that basis, as well as having their own fascinating internal logic. (As an example 竹 means bamboo (clearly a pictogram). Now, for things made -or formerly made - with bamboo, this will now appear within the character. For example, 笔 (brush).)

So, if you do get the chance to learn, seize it!

I'd actually logged in to complain about French being called outdated and non-useful, as well. A language spoken not only in France, but huge swathes of Africa, Canada, Mauritius, Haiti, New Caledonia, Tahiti, Reunion, and more...
Back when I was younger and travelled more, knowing French frequently made me the only person in a group of English speakers who could talk to people from Morocco, Algeria, Senegal, Chad, and other places. It definitely was useful to me.

Within reason it doesn't matter what language people study. As a country we just need to be speaking more. Not only the practical use but also the cultural benefits of a population that speaks other languages and is generally more international. Schools in general have unfortunately gone backwards.

This British Council report says that French is a very appropriate language for Brits to learn:

www.britishcouncil.org/sites/default/files/languages-for-the-future-report.pdf

And why French?!!! Such an outdated non-useful language-why not something more widely used...Spanish, mandarin?

Nonsense. Firstly, it is frankly offensive to call the French language outdated. Secondly the vast, vast majority of pupils will only ever use their mfl on holiday. Some will use a language for work, but for most it will be Spanish or French. Teaching Mandarin in schools is pointless except for a vanishingly small number of gifted linguists who will make it through the huge complexities of the language to be able to speak a smattering of it by GCSE. It's hard enough to get kids to be able to speak moderately competent French and Spanish! And I say that as an mfl teacher who would love to learn Mandarin.

It really does vary a lot from school to school, OP. I'm an mfl teacher and every school I've taught in has done it differently. Dd started this year in yr7 (state comp) with French and Spanish (which is crazy in my opinion) and will in theory be able to continue with both all the way through.

Spanish from start of year 7, then if in top set they pick up French in year 9 and take both to GCSE. State comp.

Comprehensive albeit with language specialisation - one language in year 7, second one in year 8 with both taken to GCSE for almost everybody. Possible to add a third in year 10 but few do.

At my DC's school they learn French (full school year), Spanish & German (both half the school year) in Y7 and Y8. They can drop one of those three in Y9.

In Y10 they are encouraged to take a language GSCE but it's not compulsory. Around 80% have opted for a language, no one has gone for more thant one.

At my ds school they do French and German and then at the end of year 8 they choose which to do as a gcse. Those that are gifted get the option to do both.

Only one MFL offered at DD's comp, and only a tiny number of pupils (

DS school does one term (old style terms that is) of french/German/Spanish so they get a taste of each.... No idea what happens after yr7 but think all encouraged to do one for gcse

Our comp does 2 languages in year 7, year 9 you can acquire a third if you are talented at languages. All students have the choice to drop languages for year 9 but they must continue with one.
Was interested to see the that only UCL now require a language as a general entry requirement to university and even then their requirement is pretty low.

At dcs' school it's 1 language, the corresponding girls' school does 2. Not sure why because our school gets good results at GCSE but is making it very unlikely anyone would study MFL as a degree. On the other hand this hasn't exactly caused uproar among parents.
DS1 is doing a different language outside school for GCSE. DS2 will most likely stick with French.

And why French?!!! Such an outdated non-useful language-why not something more widely used...Spanish, mandarin?

At ds's school, they do one language in years 7 and 8 and can choose another language instead or as well as the original to start in year 9.

At DD school they only study 1 these days. Before they started Yr7 they had to pick an option of either French or Spanish. The can do another one in their own time (lunch time and after school club).

Dd did French and Spanish at GCSE and A level. State comprehensive.

Not MFL but she also did Latin GCSE.

Check with your school.

DDs comp, all do French from y7.
Then for GCSEs you can do Spanish or German as well as or instead of French (or no language at all).

At my DCs' school you do one language and virtually all now do it for gcse. If they are good and keen they can pick up another at gcse ab initio in yr 10. Not many do tho. Where I teach MFL, students do one and the most able pick up a second in yr 9, studying in form time as PE. Idea is that they could take 2 at ks4. Again only a few do :( we need more dual linguists.

When DD started high school they did a term each of French, Spanish and German. At the end of year 7 they had to pick one to continue with (first of the English baccalaureate cohort). Those considered Gifted in languages will be encouraged to take a second with their options this year (8) to begin in year 9 (starting GCSEs a year early)

DS is due to start the same high school next year and from his year group they will only be doing French with no option to try another language unless they are gifted and encouraged to do so-but who is going to start a GCSE in a subject they have never even tried?!!! It is the end of linguists in this country, we are very lazy just because everyone speaks English.

virtually the same as PWP here, French Y7, adding one of German or Spanish at Y8. No issue with taking at least 2 of these for GCSE.

DS's state school only habitually allow 1 MFL to be studied at GCSE. The only exceptions would be where the DC was bilingual/multilingual in 1 or both of the languages they wished to study.