Why Study GCSE French?
Learning French is a rewarding and enjoyable experience, offering a gateway to communicate with people across the world and enabling a deeper understanding of different societies and cultures.
The skills and rigour that studying French requires is valued by many universities for certain courses. With nearly 300 million people speaking French across the world, having a qualification in French will not only help you when travelling but will also increase your employability. Examples of careers in which French would be beneficial include teaching, journalism, travel and tourism, interpreting and translation, and international charity work.
Studying French at Barts
When students join us, we often find that they feel more comfortable with the reading and writing components, and can find the listening and speaking components slightly more difficult. Our tutor helps to increase our students’ confidence and ability across all four components, allowing them to truly appreciate French language and culture.
While our French tutor’s preference is for AQA, we can also teach towards Edexcel and OCR. If you would like to stick to an exam board that you are familiar with, we will support and encourage that. However, switching exam boards for one reason or another is not uncommon and our tutor is adept in this transition.
Content Overview
Students study all of the following themes on which the assessments are based.
Theme 1: Identity and culture
- Me, my family and friends
- Technology in everyday life
- Free-time activities
- Customs and festivals in French-speaking countries/communities
Theme 2: Local, national, international and global areas of interest
- Home, town, neighbourhood and region
- Social issues
- Global issues
- Travel and tourism
Theme 3: Current and future study and employment
- My studies
- Life at school/college
- Education post-16
- Jobs, career choices and ambitions
Assessment structure and examination dates
There are four assessment papers (listening, speaking, reading and writing), with each paper being worth 25% of the GCSE. There is the option of taking GCSE French at either Foundation Tier (grades 1–5) or Higher Tier (grades 4–9). Each paper must be taken in the same examination series, with examinations available in the May/June series only.
At Barts, you will bet set plenty of past paper practice questions to help prepare you for your examinations. These are typically sat during Supervised Study which takes place in our exam room, and is invigilated by our Examinations Officer. Past papers are invaluable to become familiar with the structure and style of each paper, as well as practising under timed conditions. Mock exams run in the Spring term and are compulsory for all students. This gives our tutor the opportunity to find any gaps in the students’ knowledge, and helps to direct the focus of revision in the run up to exams.
If you would like to get in touch to discuss coming to Barts to study, for the first time or as a retake, French or any other subject for that matter, please do get in touch with us through our contact page, or you can email enquiry@bartscollege.co.uk.