Learning German at Keswick School is the beginning of a fascinating and rewarding journey into German.

Learning German at Keswick School is the beginning of a fascinating and rewarding journey. We conduct our lessons in German as far as possible, right from the very start of your child’s  journey, in order to immerse them as much as we can and to encourage them not to be afraid of the challenge of learning languages. If students engage fully with this, they become strong, receptive and confident linguists, who are able to integrate effectively in the wider world. We strongly believe that learning foreign languages is a skill which is truly accessible to everyone: after all, everyone already speaks at least one language fluently!

Due to the fact that most pupils have little or no knowledge of German before we welcome them to Keswick School, we are able to start right at the beginning with teaching them how to describe themselves and family. This is a lovely way to introduce them to simple structures, whilst equipping them with the basic language needed to start a conversation. In doing so, we are also introducing them to the two most useful verbs in German, sein (to be) and haben (to have). Also, pupils in Year 7 learn how to describe the town or village in which they live.

In Year 8, we move on to talking about free time, which is a meaty topic.  In this unit we are able to unlock more grammar as we deal with regular and irregular verbs. School is the next topic and we extend the pupils’ grammatical knowledge by introducing them to modal verbs to say what you can, must and are allowed to do at school. The last unit of Year 8 deals with home. In this unit we teach pupils how to describe their home, using adjectives and agreements, opinions and justifications and we reintroduce the perfect tense to allow pupils to discuss their daily routine in the past.

In Year 9, pupils learn how to talk about food, in the present and past tense, using lots of opinions and justifications. In this unit they also learn about what is typically eaten in German speaking countries. Also in Year 9, pupils learn how to discuss media, such as music and film, again in three tenses. After this, we focus on clothes in the present, past and future tenses. The conditional is also used to describe an ideal school uniform. The last big unit is on festivals and traditions, which concludes a more mature collection of units, which gets potential GCSE candidates ready for the course ahead. After this we undertake some vocab training, where we focus on learning techniques for next year.

The very nature of language learning requires pupils to constantly recycle language in different contexts, as well as adding new vocabulary and skills. Pupils learn vocabulary on a regular basis and are expected to use it for their own purposes within classwork and homework so that it becomes embedded into their longer-term memory. We also aim to provide pupils with wider cultural knowledge of Germany and other German-speaking countries in order to enable pupils to develop into considerate and tolerant global citizens.

Key Stage 3 German

Key Stage 3 German Curriculum Map

GCSE German

GCSE German Curriculum Map

A Level German

A Level German Curriculum Map

Advice for Parents

Enrichment & Extra-curricular Opportunities