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Canons High School

Languages Faculty 

Head of Faculty: John Fenn

The Languages department at Canons supports students to become confident communicators who are prepared for life as global citizens.  Throughout their career as students of French, Italian or Spanish, the aim of our language teaching is to increase student’s linguistic confidence, promote independence and raise intrinsic motivation. On arriving at Canons High School, all year 7 students have an opportunity to try our three timetabled languages during our Languages Carousel. They then opt for the language they would prefer to continue with for the rest of years 7, 8 & 9, and potentially into GCSE and beyond.

Learning a language is not just about becoming proficient in the skills of listening, speaking, reading, writing and translation.  It is about developing an appreciation and understanding of the countries and communities who speak the language.  To that end, our courses aim to engage students in learning about the cultures connected to the language they are studying, whether that be through developing their understanding of the food and drink, music, sport, customs and festivals, geography or literature related to communities who speak that language.

We value inclusivity highly and aim to actively support and celebrate diversity and multilingualism within our school community.  In addition to our three taught languages, we offer students who are literate in their home language the opportunity to take a qualification in it.  We regularly enter students for examinations in Arabic, Chinese, German, Gujarati, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Turkish and Urdu, but actively seek to support students in other languages where a qualification is available.

Curriculum Maps

Key Stage 3

KS3 French Curriculum Map

KS3 Italian Curriculum Map

KS3 Spanish Curriculum Map

Key Stage 4

KS4 French GCSE Curriculum Map

KS4 Italian GCSE Curriculum Map

KS4 Spanish GCSE Curriculum Map