Spanish GCSE

Russian

Pearson Edexcel 1RU0

Russian is spoken by over 300 million people worldwide. It is the key to a better understanding of Russian politics and history and an aid to the mastery of other Slavonic and East European languages. It is a hugely important language on the international stage and being able to read and speak it is a skill that precious few are able to take with them into the workplace. Understanding Russian brings business opportunities and is as important for science and technology as it is for diplomacy and the media.

The GCSE course builds upon the foundations established in Year 8 and Year 9 and follows the same resources, developed by the chief examiners for Russian.

GCSE Russian helps you explore a wide range of topics, from celebrations and festivals, through getting by as a tourist in Russia to international campaigns and events. You will learn about Russian culture through a range of interesting topics which will add to your understanding of the language and country: identity and culture, local area, holiday, travel, school, future aspirations, study and work and international and global dimension.

You will rapidly acquire a deeper command of grammatical structure and vocabulary and will be able to communicate in both spoken and written Russian in a range of different registers. Your reading and listening skills will become more confident, enabling you to understand the language in different contexts. People with such language skills stand out as talented and successful people, with broad and exciting horizons.

Russian is offered at A Level. The focus of A Level Russian is on further developing students’ skills in listening, speaking, reading and writing these through the study of three main topic areas: development of Russian society, politics and culture, a detailed study on either Moscow or St Petersburg, and the break-up of the USSR. The A Level course also includes the study of literature and film. In Years 12 and 13, all pupils have a 35-minute lesson per week with our native speaker in pairs or individually to develop oral fluency. Many of our students go on to study Russian at university, either as a single subject or in combination with other languages/subjects. Popular places of study in recent years have been the universities of Durham, Bristol, Sheffield, Manchester and St Andrews.

In Years 10 and 11, students will have the opportunity to work, in small groups, with a native speaker to help to develop your speaking skills and to prepare you for the speaking test. We have a partner school in Khimki, Moscow and our exchange has been running since 1994. However, given the current situation, our trip is on hold. We are currently investigating other options to enrich our learning. There are weekly support sessions for those students who wish to further their knowledge or who need extra help. The department has competed in national language competitions with “Business Language Champions.” We have also attended conferences at Oxford High School, where we have developed translation skills as well as listened to talks given on Russian history and culture by former diplomats and Oxford University lecturers.

EXAM

Paper 1 Listening

Paper 2 Speaking

Paper 3 Reading & understanding

Paper 4 Writing % Details

25 45 mins

25 10 – 12 mins exam - 12 mins preparation

25 1hr 5mins - Reading comprehension and 1 translation into English

25 1hr 25mins - 2 essays and 1 translation into Russian