• As well as Spanish dictionaries, students use bespoke textbooks personalised to their learning journey.
  • Students visited Barcelona during Wider Learning Week!
  • Each year, KS3 students head to the British Film Institute for a Spanish study day focused on Spanish film!
The aim of the MFL department is to create confident and competent life-long language learners. We encourage students to apply their linguistic knowledge to understand and communicate confidently and effectively in a variety of situations. We work as a team to deliver stimulating, challenging and enjoyable lessons that are accessible to all students and which enable them to realise their full potential. We also aim to raise awareness of the richness and diversity of other cultures so that pupils encounter different ways of seeing the world, and develop an international outlook.

All boys in Key Stage 3 are entitled to study a modern foreign language, and we encourage boys to continue with either French or Spanish at GCSE level. In Year 9, Spanish students start studying topics covered in the GCSE specification. We aim to develop the practical skills involved in language learning: communication, team-working, inter-personal, problem-solving, and organisation.

At Isleworth & Syon School, we strongly believe that learning a language can be good fun. Furthermore, the ability to communicate in a foreign language is invaluable when applying for universities and jobs. Speaking a foreign language is a vital skill, as 75% of the world’s population does not speak English and 60% of Britain’s trade is with non-English speaking countries. British businesses lose millions every year because they cannot speak their customers’ languages, and universities value MFL qualifications very highly.

Each year, we aim to offer trips to Spain in order to enable our students to put the language skills they have learned into practice. We also have a range of extra-curricular activities for students to get involved in.

We organise a number of activities for our students. These include:

  • Cine-club – once a week at lunchtime.
  • British Film Institute trip to study Spanish cinemas

We will also be offering a trip to Spain. These visits represent a great opportunity to develop cultural awareness of Spain, develop confidence and fluency in the language, and increase student motivation.