GREENFORD HIGH SCHOOL
Modern Languages Department
The Modern Foreign Language Department comprises of a committed, enthusiastic and
energetic team of language teachers. We teach French, German, Spanish, Japanese and
Panjabi during our day-time curriculum and currently offer twilight lessons in Arabic and
Portuguese.
The department is extremely well-resourced, including hundreds of electronic resources.
We have our own ICT suite as well as 2 classrooms equipped with computers and the use of
ICT rooms throughout the school. We encourage a creative variety of lesson types and
resources and embrace ICT and its potential fully. We are consistently evaluating what we
do and why and are willing to “experiment” to raise achievement and motivation. All
classrooms have an Interactive Whiteboard, teacher’s computer and audio equipment. In
the recent Ofsted inspection, lessons in the department were all judged to be ‘Good’ or
‘Outstanding.’
A new Head of Department was appointed in September 2011 and from next September all
pupils studying languages will begin in Year 7 with either French, Spanish or German, with
students who demonstrate a flair for languages taking on a second language in year 8. In
Years 9 and 10 pupils will work towards a GCSE qualification in one or two languages
chosen languages, with Japanese an option as a second language from Year 8.
As a MFL department within a school with Specialist Language College status since
September 2001, members of the MFL are often required to work harder than within schools
without the Specialist status; a responsibility the MFL team understands and rises to. The
department has a specialist primary outreach teacher and we provide regular support to
local feeder primary schools. It is a busy but fun and caring department with sharing of
resources and ideas expected, as is support and guidance. We also have Training School
status and welcome many “visitors” to the MFL department.
We currently have links with schools in France, Spain, Germany and Japan and the
department organises visits abroad each year. We employ Foreign Language Assistants for
French, German and Spanish who play an important role in developing pupils’ spoken
competence and raising students’ awareness of the culture of countries where the target
language in spoken.