Welcome to St Paul's Girls' School — St Paul's Girls' School

Year 7

The family and pets; weather; food; personal information; shopping; free time. Grammar includes: the present tense of strong, weak and modal verbs; the nominative and accusative cases (including some prepositions); the interrogative and imperative; genders of nouns in singular and plural with their matching prepositions. Most of our class work is oral (conversations, questions and answers, role plays) and the listening passages are based on situations that students of this age might well encounter in Germany.

Year 8

We aim to consolidate and improve grammar and we develop more complex writing and extend speaking and listening skills. We undertake composition and letter writing based on real life situations such as travel; school life; illnesses; making appointments; buying clothes; lost property; ordering a meal in a restaurant; expressing your opinions. Grammar includes: the nominative, accusative and dative cases; possessive adjectives; personal pronouns; adjectives and adverbs; subordinate clauses; the perfect and future tenses; further prepositional use. The course is enhanced with a project on German history. There's also an optional exchange visit to Bonn.

Year 9

If you’ve been studying German since Year 7, this year consolidates your understanding of speaking, listening, reading and writing German. Topics include: the world of school, work and the professions; driving; education; domestic routines; coping with problems in a variety of situations. Grammar includes: the imperfect tense; the imperative; relative pronouns and clauses; adjective endings; complex word order; revising previous grammar.

Alternatively, if you didn’t take up German in Year 7, you have the chance to begin a three-year GCSE course in Year 9 covering the same topics as the Year 7 curriculum.

Year 10

For students who started German in Year 7, grammar includes consolidating tenses and adding the conditional. Topics include: future work and study plans; foreign travel; other cultures; health and medicine; communications; the arts; the environment.

If you started German in Year 9, this year you keep on practising your reading, writing, listening and speaking skills by talking about family and personal relationships, school, places, shopping, restaurants, food and travel. New grammar includes: the future, perfect and imperfect tenses; the accusative and dative cases; prepositions; pronouns; adjectival forms; subordinate clauses.

Year 11

Students take their GCSE this year encountering a more advance study of German culture, history, vocabulary and grammar in more depth as possible preparation for A level. Topics include: transport; health and illness; accommodation; accidents; holidays; the environment; plans for the future. As enhancement, we look at the post-war division of Germany, life in East Germany and the impact of reunification and we explore new German cinema – particularly The Lives of Others and Goodbye Lenin – which deals with those themes. New grammar includes: the conditional and future tenses; adjectival endings; relative pronouns; the passive voice; imperatives; complex word order.

Year 12

We aim to deepen understanding of contemporary German culture and society and study the the world of work; education; travel; political systems; social and cultural trends. We acquire the critical vocabulary to start discussing short literary texts. We meet the conditional; present and imperfect subjunctive; prepositional verbs, idioms and complex syntax. There's an oral assessment on a topic you research yourself and you should visit a German-speaking country at some point during the year, maybe on our exchange visit to Munich.

Year 13

Two literary texts; researching a topical debate for the final oral assessment; responding to authentic spoken language and written texts; translating into and out of German; guided writing; essays; contemporary culture and society.