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Original poster

Languages at secondary school

58 replies

Mintychoc1 · 10/01/2017 16:09

DS1 is in year 7. They have been studying French since September, and they have just added in Spanish too. In April they have to make a choice - French or Spanish - to study in year 8.

Does this mean that only one language can be studied for GCSE? Presumably if they can't do 2 languages in year 8, they won't be able to do them in year 10?

Is this the norm now? When I was at school the kids who liked languages were able to do 2 or even 3. I think it's a shame if these days kids can only study one.

OP posts:
PettsWoodParadise · 10/01/2017 19:04

DDs state school do one MFL (French) in Y7, one taster lesson of Latin per week. Then in Y8 in addition to French they can choose German or Spanish. Any other options you do as a twighlight course and you have to pay for these, on offer are Mandarin, Japanese and Latin. I can't see how with squeezed budgets there is a better option - for those on low incomes the language options will be less but should the paid for courses be dropped solely for that reason? Most of DD's friends are doing French in Y7 and either have the option of taking up another language further up the school or swapping out French after Y9 making learning a new language a big task.

bojorojo · 10/01/2017 18:45

Lots of schools only allow one. I can't say it is the norm, but it is dumbing down the curriculum. It is one of the reasons few state school children from 'bog standard' schools make it to MFL joint honours degree courses. Keeping two is so much more beneficial for linguists. 3 sciences - yes, 2 MFL - no. Good academic schools will do 2, but your school does not value linguists - like very many others.

CheekyNandosChicken · 10/01/2017 18:09

Moomin - is your comp a language specialist school? My dd is good at languages and unfortunately only gets one at her comp.

CheekyNandosChicken · 10/01/2017 18:08

In my experience it's often one language at comps, 2 at grammars and 2+ at academic private schools.

Moominmammacat · 10/01/2017 17:31

Mine started Language 1 in Y7, Language 2 in Y8 and optional twilight class Language 3 in Y9 and took them all through to GCSE. Local comp.

Original poster
Mintychoc1 · 10/01/2017 16:27

I'm going to ask the school, but I thought I'd try and find out what the norm is these days

OP posts:
Whynotnowbaby · 10/01/2017 16:21

As pottering says, I don't know what your school policy is but in my experience languages are being increasingly squeezed out by schools looking to balance the books and tick results boxes. When I started in my school we taught three to most children and everyone did at least one to GCSE (some did 2 or 3). Now our y7s will only do one and only about half of them will be encouraged to go on to GCSE.

PotteringAlong · 10/01/2017 16:14

Just email school and ask them. In the nicest possible way, none of us will know what the MFL policy is at your child's school.