Arabic
The study of languages opens pupils’ minds to a whole world of opportunity. It develops their deep cultural awareness of how linguistic heritage links people of different cultures around the world. We enable all of our pupils to broaden their horizons, converse with other people from different backgrounds, learn about world cultures and strengthen their economic prospects by building for them a firm foundation in language learning.
The whole-school curriculum addresses pupils’ academic, personal and social development. These three individual elements of learning provide a different component to the education of every pupil. Intellectual, personal and social maturity are the goal of these structured layers of learning at the school. There are three guiding elements which are brought to life through the Arabic curriculum:
- Educational excellence:
- MFL teachers engender a love of language learning and a thirst to become fluent in the spoken and written word.
- Pupils are well prepared to continue their language learning post-16 whether within a career or educational context.
- Character development:
- MFL teachers bring the country and culture into the classroom and support pupils’ broader personal development through appreciation of other countries and cultures.
- Enrichment opportunities include reading clubs and trips.
- Service to communities:
- MFL teachers promote teamwork and collaboration in the classroom.
- At GCSE, pupils grapple with social and global issues with the aim of developing pupils’ thinking around their civic duties.
Pupils:
- Understand and respond to spoken and written language from a variety of carefully selected sources, including authentic audio texts where appropriate.
- Speak with increasing confidence, fluency and spontaneity, finding ways of communicating what they want to say, including through discussion and asking questions, and continually improving the accuracy of their pronunciation and intonation.
- Read and respond to a wide range of textual sources in each target language, including authentic and literary texts; and to enhance their linguistics knowledge and fluency, and learn more about parts of the world where Arabic is spoken, through reading for enjoyment from an extensive reading list.
- Write at varying length, for different purposes and audiences, using the variety of grammatical structures that they have learnt.
- Discover and develop an appreciation of the countries and cultures where the language is used.
The following principles underpin the Arabic curriculum:
- essential substantive knowledge carefully sequenced across units of study and year-on-year to support fluency in the spoken and written word.
- disciplinary knowledge that includes vocabulary, grammar and phonics.
- procedural knowledge is captured through listening, speaking, reading and writing.
- explicit disciplinary knowledge components that lead to a series of composite tasks at the end of lessons, topics and units of study. These help to secure fluency in the spoken and written word over time (fluency composites).
Year 7
Year 7 focuses on securing a love of the language and culture, forming positive language learning habits and securing a strong linguistic foundation with a focus on knowing and remembering more. Fluency is key.
| Introductions | Myself |
| My family | In class |
Year 8
Year 8 builds on the strong foundation of Year 7 by recycling some content in greater depth, practised and extended through more complex linguistic structures and sustained listening, speaking, reading and writing. Some new topics are also introduced, as well as the past tense. Developing cultural awareness and active engagement verbally and in written form remain at the core of the curriculum.
| My house | Sports |
| Entertainment & Celebrations | Shopping in town |
Year 9
Year 9 builds on the strong foundation of Y8 by recycling some content in greater depth, practised, and extended through more complex linguistic structures and sustained listening, speaking, reading and writing. Some new topics are also introduced. Developing cultural awareness and active engagement verbally and in written form remain at the core of the curriculum. Foundations for GCSE are secure.
| Celebrations | Holidays & Travel |
| Cultural & daily life | School |
In Year 10 pupils revisit topics studied at Key Stage 3 in more depth through the Key Stage 4 GCSE specification. They listen and read for gist and detail with increasing stamina. Pupils speak and write confidently in some detail. They use correct verb endings more consistently, develop greater confidence in combining time frames and learn a wider range of verb tenses. They offer and justify opinions on a range of topics. Pupils recall high frequency vocabulary and structures and now start to draw upon more nuanced and specialised vocabulary.
| My School | Cultural & daily life |
| Work | Environmental Issues |
Year 11
In Year 11, pupils continue to build upon a strong foundation of prior learning to tackle more complex content relating to future plans, healthy lifestyle choices and social and global social issues. They know how to synthesise learning across topics and recycle language more proficiently from memory. The simple future tense, subjunctive voice and passive voices are introduced. Pupils end the course well-prepared for the rigour of GCSE exams in Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing. Pupils communicate competently and confidently in spoken and written Arabic and appreciate Arab culture in different countries around the world; they have a strong foundation to study A-Level Arabic or use Arabic proficiently in future.
| Theme 1: Identity Who am I ? |
Theme 3: School |
| Theme 4: Travel |
Theme 5: Bringing the world together |
Edexcel GCSE Arabic 1AA0
Paper 1: Listening and understanding in Arabic
| Overview | Focus |
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Written examination Foundation tier:
Higher tier:
25% of the total qualification |
This paper draws on vocabulary and structures across all the themes and topics. Students are assessed on their understanding of standard spoken Arabic by one or more speakers in a range of public and social settings. Students will respond to multiple-response and short-answer open-response questions based on a recording featuring male and female Arabic speakers.
Foundation tier
Higher tier
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Paper 2: Speaking in Arabic
| Overview | Focus |
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Internally conducted and externally assessed Foundation tier:
Higher tier:
25% of the total qualification |
This paper draws on vocabulary and structures across all the themes and topics. Students are assessed on their ability to communicate and interact effectively through speaking in Arabic for different purposes and in different settings. There are three tasks, which must be conducted in the following order:
The assessments are conducted by teachers in one session within a prescribed assessment window, the recordings are then submitted to Pearson for external marking. |
Paper 3: Reading and understanding in Arabic
| Overview | Focus |
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Written examination Foundation tier:
Higher tier:
25% of the total qualification |
This paper draws on vocabulary and structures across all the themes and topics. Students are assessed on their understanding of written Arabic across a range of different types of texts, including advertisements, emails, letters, articles and literary texts. Students are required to respond to multiple-response and short-answer questions based on these texts.
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Paper 4: Writing in Arabic
| Overview | Focus |
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Written examination Foundation tier:
Higher tier:
25% of the total qualification |
This paper draws on vocabulary and structures across all the themes and topics. Students are assessed on their ability to communicate effectively through writing in Arabic for different purposes and audiences. Students are required to produce responses of varying lengths and types to express ideas and opinions in Arabic. The instructions to students are in Arabic. Word counts are specified for each question.
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Students are given the opportunity to visit countries in which Arabic is spoken widely. The school has facilitated trips to Arab countries in the past and has the ambition to continue doing so! Our students enjoy a variety of activities e.g., Arabic Immersion Summer School and the Arabic speaking competition run by the British Council where they are immersed in the Arabic language and culture. They also participate in enrichment clubs, e.g., reading & culture clubs which give a flavour of the different cultures of Arab countries. At KS4, students are invited to intervention sessions to consolidate their learning and prepare them for the GCSE examination.
There are excellent professional career opportunities for learning Arabic. There is a great demand for translators and interpreters as well as Arabic teachers not only in the UK, but also around the world whilst enjoying the weather! Many global companies require learning Arabic in customer service roles. Working in humanitarian roles in global organisations like the United Nations is also an exciting career for many people.
