A wonderfully inclusive environment prevails, offering pupils the opportunity to develop new language skills in a vibrant, forward-thinking and ambitious department, where a rare blend and diversity of native speakers among the staff and pupil-body is harnessed.


Foundation Year (Year 9)

When pupils join us in the Foundation Year, they choose two modern languages from the list below:

- EAL (English as an Additional Language)

- French

- German or Spanish

- Russian

Pupils who are particularly keen on modern languages can even choose three languages, provided the third language is Russian. Whilst some knowledge of French is expected, we offer beginner classes for German, Spanish and Russian. For French, German and Spanish, we also offer classes for pupils who have had at least one year of tuition in that language. Exposure to a new language at this stage has proved to be very popular, with a number of pupils in recent years going on to study these subjects at (I)GCSE, in the Sixth Form and beyond.

Privately arranged tuition is available in Italian, Japanese, Mandarin and Russian.

Remove and Hundred (Years 10 and 11)

Pupils can opt to study either French, German and Spanish and may choose more than one of these languages. We follow the Pearson Edexcel IGCSE syllabus, which is a two-year course. Private tuition and exam entry for the languages mentioned above is also available at (I)GCSE.

The Sixth Form (Years 12 and 13)

In the Sixth Form, we offer French, German and Spanish at A level or as part of the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (subject to demand). There are several IB courses to choose from, with most pupils opting for either the Standard Level or Higher Level Language B courses. We also offer the Spanish Ab Initio course for complete beginners. For native speakers of German, we offer the German A: Language and Literature courses at both Standard and Higher Level. In addition, pupils who wish to pursue other native languages can opt for the School-Supported Self-Taught Language A course (Standard Level only).

We very much enjoy encouraging and supporting pupils who would like to pursue modern languages at university and can assist with course selection, applications and Oxbridge preparation.


Alexander Young, Head of Modern Languages