The department has a suite of seven classrooms, two of which are dedicated ICT language rooms. In addition there is a smaller room also equipped with network computers for use with the Sixth Form. There are three small rooms used by the foreign language assistants for speaking practice. All the non- ICT rooms have video facilities.

In the department there are nine full time members of staff, five part time members of staff, and a full time technician. We have a French, German and Russian language assistant.

The languages currently offered in school are French, German, Russian, Spanish and Italian. French and German have equal status and are taught from Year 7. In Year 8 students can choose a second language. Spanish and Italian are offered as a two year GCSE course taught in twilight sessions. For the last 3 months we have also offered Chinese to students during the lunch hour.

As a result of having dedicated ICT facilities at least 25% of all language lessons at Key Stages 3 and 4 are taught via the computer and the department has software in all languages taught.

Foreign travel is an important aspect of the department and one that is continuously being developed. Year 7 visit the Rhineland or Boulogne. We have an established exchange with Neustadt, Germany and our students visited their partners in July 2003. A group of Year 9 students will visit the Christmas Market in Cologne in December 2004. Our first group of students spent three weeks in Kunming, China in summer 2003 and another group will visit in July 2004. In October we received a group of seventeen students from the Czech Republic including two students who completed a two week work experience at a local company. Our students make the return visit in March.

We have 11 partner primary schools as part of our outreach programme. In seven schools we teach French and in four schools we teach German. Most pupils are in Year 6 and many will transfer to Robert Pattinson School in the following year so transition arrangements are in place. Some schools, after discussion, prefer different arrangements including the teaching of Year 3, and of years 4, 5 and 6 together. We also offer after school clubs in French and German to all feeder schools.

We have partner schools in China, Czech Republic, Saint Martin Guadeloupe, South Africa and the United States. The agreement with the Chinese school includes the exchange of staff for six to twelve months and have just completed the first exchange of two Chinese teachers at our school and one of our teachers spending six months in China as part of her international professional development.

The South African school is mainly linked to Citizenship and Geography. Cross-curricular prospects are undertaken in order to allow our students to understand different cultures. We raise money in order to support our partner school in South Africa so far we have helped with buying stools for pupils to sit at their computers and a digital camera.

Our foreign visits play an important part not only in language lessons and citizenship with the school but also outreach work talking about their culture, custom and language. History, Art, Geography, RE, Science, Music, English, Maths, Citizenship have all been involved in cross-curricular international projects.

We offer language tuition to businesses in the local area. In one company we have taught French, Spanish, German and Russian. We work closely with the Chamber of Commerce to provide the relevant language and level suitable to the needs of the company.

In Adult Education we offer morning, afternoon and evening classes mainly at beginners and intermediate levels but some are advanced. The languages range from French, German, Russian, Spanish, Italian, Mandarin Chinese and Greek.

JEH/MES February 2004