Year 7 Spanish/French

[newusername12345]

My DC is starting year 7 in September and is going to learn Spanish, which I'm happy about. Some of DC friends are going to learn French, which is what they used to learn at primary school. It was the school that chose who was going to learn Spanish or French, I'm just wondering what is the criteria that schools use to choose who learns what?

I have no idea, but if it is of any reassurance my DD had to choose two from French, German and Spanish. She had done French at school since nursery, although the level certainly wasn't high! She chose German and Spanish! Ultimately though, got an A* in Spanish GCSE (gave up German after Year 9).

Spanish is spoken by a lot more people so is more useful.

At my dc school they allocate randomly unless the parents expressed a preference.

At most schools it's random IME unless you say, and even then timetabling and other issues might mean you don't get what you ask for! Can they pick up a second MFL in yr 8/9?

If you have a preference for French, id speak to the school.
I already told my sons school that we had a preference for French and they have written that on his notes

Ours do it based on form groups so pupils are allocated to a form based on info from primaries, Sen etc and then they will look if any parents in each form have indicated a language preference very few do and those forms will be allocated a language first. If more than one language is indicated in a form group then it's pot luck.

In my school (years ago now, I'm 25) we all did French in years 7 and 8 as it was the only language. However the school became a specialist languages college, and started teaching more languages. When we started year 9, the set you were in for French determined what other language you got to learn, we didn't get a choice, it was on our timetable the first day back. Then we got to choose what language we wanted to do for gcse.

Spanish is spoken by a lot more people so is more useful

I disagree. More people in Europe have French as a second language than Spanish. Lots of African countries use French too.

PP is right, more people have Spanish as their native language than French so maybe more useful depending on what countries they visit I guess

Spanish is more useful in the US French is more useful in the UK.

In reality the best one is the one you are most interested in.

Well, French is unlikely to be more useful than English in Europe, unless you are in France (yes, I know it's spoken in other European countries).

Spanish is one of the most spoken languages in the world. Millions more people speak it than French.

yes, because central and south america is massive, so it would be ideal if you plan on living in spain or trekking through south america, - thats why so many US people find it useful, because of the proximity.
Its a shame more schools wont teach both. My dd is doing both in september (not that shes happy about it lol)

Spanish is useful in the USA because so many people are of Hispanic descent. PR and Mexico for example.

However the notion that you only learn a language because of who you might meet is a very narrow reason to study a language! Every language has important cultural aspects and understanding other cultures is an important reason to do MFL. A MFL can awaken lots of areas for personal development, not just asking for a coffee in a cafe in Peru or Reunion Island!

Can't speak for other schools but in DD's school, it was random unless you gave a reason acceptable to the school why you wanted one or the other. In our case, we wrote in pointing out that DH's home language was French (he was born in England, but to French speaking parents), and generally communicated with his older relatives in French. That was certainly enough to get her into the French stream. Somebody else wrote that they had Spanish ancestors, and I think that was enough to get them into the Spanish stream (even though those ancestors are several generations ago). Somebody else wrote that the older sibling had done French, and therefore could offer support. I don't know, but I think that was enough to get them in the French stream as well.