Modern Foreign Languages
Head of Department – Mrs M. García de Foster
Languages will open doors to you in the future! When learning languages not only are you learning to speak and understand a new language, but you also learn communication skills, team work, flexibility, being outside your comfort zone, perseverance, memory skills; – life-long skills much appreciated by future employers.
The Languages Department is a buzzing department with outstanding teachers, 6 of which are native, who are fully dedicated to enthuse students with their passion for language learning.
At Torquay Boys’ Grammar School students have the opportunity to study:
KS3
In year 7, students start Spanish and in year 8, they continue with Spanish and start their second language: German or Mandarin Chinese. They continue with both languages until at least the end of year 9.
KS4
In years 10 and 11, students continue with one or two languages. The study of one language is compulsory for GCSE.
KS5
At KS5, there are many opportunities to continue with languages through the International Baccalaureate. All students taking the IB course study at least one language as part of their IB Diploma and the two-year IB course enables us to offer a range of courses in the various languages.
Why languages at IB?
The IB Diploma promotes the study of languages among the young people of today because we live in a world where language skills are of great importance.
When looking for a job, it is important to be able to offer prospective employers as many skills as possible and language learning not only teaches students how to converse in another language but also gives them many other skills which are greatly valued by employers:
- communication skills
- team work
- being flexible
- understanding of other cultures
- negotiation skills
- cognitive skills
Extra curricular activities
The Modern Languages Department also gives students the opportunity to experience other cultures and languages during the International Week of Languages: Polish, Japanese, Greek, Italian, Swedish, Arabic, Welsh, Swahili, Japanese, Portuguese, Basque and Catalan.
A selection of year 10, and all IB students also take part in a Languages Day run by Oxford University Professors to give them an insight into how far languages can take them and how languages can play an important part in their future careers.
The Department offers a range of trips in which students can put into practice their language skills:
- Y9 Valencia or Cologne trips during Activities Week
- KS4 Trip to China
- KS4 and KS5 Work Experience or Language and Cultural Course in France, Germany and Spain. Students are also given advice about doing Work Experience or private exchanges in the summer months after they finish Year 12.
We work with an international company: Centrax Gas Turbines. Languages are an extremely important part of the company as they have branches in many countries around the world and it is important for their engineers to be able to communicate in other languages. Centrax sponsors our Linguist of the Year Cup, awarded every year to the best GCSE dual linguist.
We advocate continuing with your language learning: – you can’t go wrong! No matter which career path you choose in the future, keep your languages going. They will come in very handy one day both for work here in UK and abroad.
