Online Language A-Levels

[loobylou44]

We've just found out that 6th form are not running French A-level this year. Dd wants to do French and Business at university and needs French A-level to do this.
The only way she can do this is by doing an online French A-level alongside studying 3 further A-levels at 6th form. Is this doable?
She's passionate about languages so I don't think she'd struggle with motivation.

Bump! As a fellow language enthusiast, I’m gutted for your daughter that her college doesn’t offer French A Level. I don’t know about online A Levels unfortunately but hopefully someone more knowledgeable will come along later.

Are there any university courses that would accept a B1 level CEFR qualification? I’m pretty sure there are CEFR courses online.

She might not need French A level if she picks a course that offers it ‘ab initio’. Business management and French at Surry, for instance:

‘ Overall: BBB.

Required subjects: French.

If you do not have French at the required level but you have achieved GCSE grade A in a modern language OR you expect to achieve at least A-level grade B in a modern language, we can consider offering you a place in the French ab initio group.’

Surrey! Oops

There are many courses where you can do something with a language ab initio as UnkindlyMay says. There are also quite a few flexible/combined/50:50 courses. Go to UCAS and search for French and Business. It's usually only MFL where you are required to have A levels in the languages you want to study. Doing a 4th A level which is a language online is quite a commitment. MFL A levels involve a lot of work.

The National Extension College offers A Level French, although it is expensive.

www.nec.ac.uk/courses/french-a-level/

There are other distance learning providers too I believe. Alternatively, FE colleges or adult education services might offer it in the evenings in some areas.

Does the school offer any A level MFL, even if not French? Some courses are happy to take those with evidence of linguistic ability in a different language.

@UnkindlyMay the school only has the capacity to run one MFL for each year group. This year they had more applicants for Spanish so French was dropped. I asked about dd taking Spanish but as she has no experience they said no.

Thanks everyone. I've shown her this thread and I think she's realised that she can still study the degree she wants without doing A-level French.
Having said that she still wants to do some kind of French course.
She really wants to go to this particular 6th form so has chosen another subject to do in place of French. We have promised her that if she's coping with the workload of 3 A-levels we will arrange an AS Level French course.

Maybe when things get more normal she can do a language course in France. It might also be worth looking at online courses with Alliance Francaise and the Institut Francais.

It's so rubbish when schools restrict MFL like this. DS' school used to offer three languages but you could only do one for GCSE and you couldn't choose which to do. So if your year group did French you did French, even if you wanted to do Spanish or German. The teacher said "well any language is useful". Well yes it is, but if you want to spend time in Germany, German is more useful than Spanish! DS did do Spanish A level but he hasn't particularly enjoyed it. However, without covid he could have spent last summer doing a language course there.

(which would have brought it to life - I was able to go to Germany three times while doing my A level course which made a massive difference to my ability and motivation to learn it).

OP if she is keen do you have the cash for a tutor? Covid has made online tutoring much more acceptable and made tutors more agile in their work.

I would say IME two years of tutoring at maybe 45 mins a week could get her to the standard if she were prepared to do quite a bit of work. That could cost about £25-40 per hour so upwards of £2500 or so?

@clary thankfully we can afford a tutor for her.

Sixth form have agreed that she can do 2 A-levels and then French online.

Any advice on online French A-level providers or places to source a tutor would be great.