German
Welcome to the German Department
At KS3 we work from Echo Express and at KS4 we use the Nelson Thornes AQA approved GCSE German text book supplemented with Kerboodle and Vocab Express on-line support. Classes at AS and A2 are typically small but students benefit from much more individual attention and feedback. We follow the AQA syllabus. At A2 we study the film "Lola rennt" and the play "Andorra" by Max Frisch.
In recent years students have been to see Stephen Fry give a talk on languages in London, taken two trips to Cologne, been on various visits to and from the German School in Ham, Richmond and taken a four day joint trip to Berlin with a local primary school (Read more). We run taster lessons at the local primary school and the Head of German has been heavily involved in the design and delivery of Princes' Teaching Institute training for NQTs. We have just set up an e-mail exchange with a school near Stuttgart - the link coming from a former A-level student now enjoying her sandwich year at the school as their language assistant.
In terms of results, the German department was the best performing academic, timetabled subject at GCSE last year in terms of value add. This is even more impressive when you consider that these were the legacy students who had only had an hour a week in Year 8 and Year 9.
If you would like any more information, please do not hesitate to contact the Head of German, Mr Simon Depoix: sdepoix@gordons.surrey.sch.uk
League of Champions 2015
German Success in the Global Challenge!
Click here to see the final results table
German Exchange
The German Exchange started in June 2014 and goes from strength the strength. We run it with the Lise-Meitner-Gymnasium in Königsbach-Stein in Baden-Württemberg after a former pupil completed her year as Language Assistant in 2012-13 and contacted me to see about starting an exchange. It is primarily for KS4 pupils but 6th formers are also welcome to take advantage of the fantastic opportunities an exchange provides.
The rhythm of the exchange is that pupils come from Germany at the end of June to sample the delights of Annual and Britain in the summer. We go there in December to sample the delights of the Christmas markets and Germany in the winter! From humble beginnings, we now run the exchange jointly with Woking High School and we hope this will continue for as long as possible.
Click here to see more photos from our German Exchange 2016
Exchange Visit to Germany - December 2014
Vocab Express Challenge - September 2014
Click here to read about the 2014 Vocab Express Challenge
German Taster Day at Holy Trinity Primary School - 24th June 2014
Guten Tag!
On a sunny Tuesday afternoon, Mr Depoix and Frau Werner, our German language assistant delivered German taster lessons to all 60 Year 6 pupils at Holy Trinity school as part of our on-going commitment to building up our links with schools locally and globally. This was actually only just over a week since the same pupils had been at Gordon’s learning Mandarin as part of their China Day experience, so they have certainly had a lot of exposure to foreign languages recently!
We began with a “did you know..?” section about all things German/Swiss/Austrian. Did you know for example that there are 100 million native German speakers in Europe? We then talked about Germany’s geographic location and which countries it shares a border with, some famous German-speaking people and some famous German/Swiss/Austrian landmarks, food and companies.
We then moved on to the lesson proper and the pupils learnt to greet each other (in four different ways), ask someone their name, to give their name, to ask someone how they are, to say how they are (with eight different responses) and to finally say goodbye. Thanks to Mr Depoix’s crazy mimes and actions to help pupils remember the sounds, all the pupils were able to have this six-part conversation by the end of the lesson. We finished with the classic children’s song “Schnappi das kleine Krokodil”, which always goes down well with children of all ages.
The lessons were extremely well received and many parents have since contacted me to say how much the pupils enjoyed the lessons. The fact that a few “Gummibären” may have been consumed as an example of German manufacturing prowess had obviously nothing to do with the positive evaluations.
Pupils had the option at the end of the lesson to complete a short comic strip for homework to demonstrate their learning and a couple of examples by Emily Porter and Leah Stroud (both 6D) are included below.
Danke und auf Wiedersehen!
Herr Depoix and Frau Werner