Languages Department

Bonjour, hola, guten Tag

Learning a language starts with your ears. Long before children read a word of French or Spanish, they can hear its music, copy its sounds and answer a question. So the Languages Department is planned around listening and speaking first, with reading and writing growing out of them.

Listening practice that talks back

We plan short listening exercises with clear spoken phrases: hear a phrase, pick the picture, then try saying it. Comprehension questions will be Marked by Classfern. Speaking will be Self-assessed – learners compare their attempt with the model – and nobody's voice is ever collected by us.

Which languages?

We plan to begin with French and Spanish, two of the languages most widely taught in schools in both countries, then add German and others as the department grows. Each language will share the same building blocks: greetings, numbers, family, food, weather and travel, then tenses and opinions.

Little and often

Languages stick through small daily habits. We plan a five-minute phrase of the day that a class can use at roll call or a family over breakfast, a review deck that brings words back just before they are forgotten, and a guide to French and Spanish sounds, so learners know how a word should sound before they see it written. Review questions will be Marked by Classfern.

Every age, every stage

• Preschool and kindergarten: songs, colors, numbers and “copy me” games.
• Grades 1–5: everyday words, simple sentences and picture stories.
• Middle and high school: grammar, tenses and longer reading and listening, with exam-style practice for older students.
• University and adults: travel phrases, a refresher for rusty school French, and help with English for speakers of other languages.

Monsieur Champollion and the stone that spoke three ways

The Rosetta Stone carries the same decree in three scripts: hieroglyphs, demotic and ancient Greek. By comparing them, Champollion cracked a writing system nobody had been able to read for well over a thousand years. Our Monsieur Champollion loves a puzzle, collects alphabets and will remind learners that every mistake is a clue.

Music already speaks this language

Songs are one of the best ways into a new language, which is why our flagship Music Department matters here. Its singing play-along helps you find a key that suits your voice and sing along with do re mi. Expect plenty of singing when the Languages Department opens too.

Help us say hello

Everything above is ready to build the moment funding arrives. Native speakers, language teachers and translators who would like to help are warmly invited to contact us.