Total Education

We believe that the learning of a foreign language provides a valuable educational, social and cultural experience for all children.  It allows them to develop communication and literacy skills that lay the foundations for future language learning, together with an awareness of the multi-lingual and multi-cultural world in which we live.

In the earliest years at Barrow Hills, children enjoy learning French through games, stories and songs.  Once they enter Junior Prep, they progress through more formal learning to Common Entrance studies in Year 8.

In 2010, 'Schoolshape', a virtual language laboratory facility was introduced and is now an important element of teaching in the Upper Prep.

Visits to France are arranged in the Summer Term every year to allow children to experience French culture and to hear the French language being spoken.  The Year 5 visit is a day trip to Boulogne which includes a trip to a market so that the children can make use of their French speaking skills.

Year 7 spend a week in Normandy which includes a day at La Providence, Dieppe, a school with whom we have been associated for over three years. Pupils also have the chance to act as hosts for their La Providence penpals for one night when they pay a reciprocal visit to Barrow Hills in the Summer Term.

Helen Thomas, Head of French

helen.thomas@barrowhills.org.uk