Subject Choices for GCSE Options group one
Skills for the future
Opportunities for Playful Scholarship
Learning another language provides a very wide range of transferrable skills. Communication skills, including verbal confidence and presentation skills, are acquired through increased fluency. Creativity and flexibility of thought are key to speaking and writing successfully in another language. Tackling grammar, translation and comprehension tasks builds analytical and problem-solving skills. Openness to, and appreciation of, difference and the ability to consider others’ perspectives is crucial to encountering a different language and culture.
The German department encourages intellectual curiosity and risk-taking. Every lesson should be a joyful experience and Playful Scholarship is at the heart of everything we do, whether it might be when working out the correct word order of a complex sentence or doing a running dictation around the classroom. We don’t take ourselves too seriously and enjoy celebrating German festivals and using music, films and short videos as part of our teaching. Outside of lessons, opportunities abound for further exploration of German and languages in general. Our weekly languages club, Linguine, offers fun cultural activities and the opportunity to learn new languages. Students take the lead in researching and writing articles about language and culture for the termly Linguistica blog. We encourage keen linguists to participate in the Oxford German Olympiad competition and currently offer day trips to the BFI as well as the Goethe Institut. Students will have the opportunity to establish a friendship with a penfriend from Munich and will be given the chance to take part to a full exchange with them.
The wide skillset that language students develop ranging from practical communication to increased empathy - is highly prized by universities and employers across all fields.
27
