Year 10

The start of a two-year GCSE course. Topics include: the family; personal relationships; places; shopping; ordering meals; school; travel. Grammar includes: the present, immediate future, imperfect and preterite tenses; direct and indirect object pronouns; prepositions; pronouns; adjectival forms.

Year 11

Intensive listening and speaking practice. New grammar includes: the pluperfect, conditional perfect, future and conditional tenses; some uses of the subjunctive; demonstrative adjectives and pronouns; impersonal verbs. Topics include: holidays; accommodation; health and fitness; careers; shopping; public services; the natural environment. There's an extra conversation session every week and we organise a study visit to Venice.

Year 12

Those starting Italian in the senior school will be getting to GCSE-equivalent standard by the end of the first term, deepening their understanding of contemporary Italian culture and society (health and fitness; youth culture; the world of work; education; travel; social and cultural trends) and acquiring the vocabulary to start discussing short literary texts. There's an oral assessment on a topic you research yourself. By the end of the year you're ready to take AS modules that cover listening, reading, writing and speaking skills. You should also visit an Italian-speaking country at some point during the holidays (we organise a language course in Turin).

Year 13

Two literary texts (including one by Dante); researching a topical debate for the final oral assessment; responding to authentic spoken language and written texts; translating into and out of Italian; essay-writing; contemporary culture and society.