Our Curriculum Aims:   

Here in the AGSB German department students are encouraged right from their first day to get stuck in.  We promote decoding German into English in a fun and engaging manner and by the end of Year 7 students have a strong sense of being able to “do” German.  We encourage resilience and making mistakes are funny rather than a problem.  We make them, we learn from them and we move on.  In Year 7 we look at how logical the German language is, and how we can decode this language by applying logic rules via grammar.  We also look at how similar much of German is to English to allow students to build on their confidence when speaking and understanding German.  As well as the language, we look at the Brothers’ Grimm tales and this is where students also learn German sound patterns.  We look closely at life in Germany and how Germany influences our own lives.  We also look at Namibia and how Germany’s colonisation has influenced life there. 

Year 8 builds on the magical work in Year 7, and we continue to learn both the language and about the culture.  Students’ knowledge of the language is accelerated and by the end of Year 8 students can hold a good conversation, using a range of sophisticated and complex grammatical structures.  They are now ready to start their in depth GCSE German course and embark on a project of learning about Germany as a country and the German way of life.   

In Year 9-11 students of German complete their GCSE.  Our students learn better when they are fully challenged and so beginning their GCSE in Year 9, and indeed building upon an accelerated Key Stage 3 course is the best for their intellectual curiosity.  Now that students have a good grasp of the language, we expect them to discuss more social issues such as family life and poverty.  They also have opportunities to go on the Year 9 Cologne trip and the German exchange throughout Years 9-11.  We know students learn better when they are interested in the subject and so immersing them into the culture and the rules of the language help to do this.  By the end of Year 11 students are able to hold sustained, accurate conversations, demonstrate their knowledge of German culture and the country, while also being able to understand a lot about the “why” of the language.  Whatever your child’s thoughts on German before he studies it, he will find he discovers so much more in the AGSB German department.