Shell Guide to the Curriculum 2025 - 2026

YOU MUST CHOOSE AT LEAST ONE MODERN FOREIGN LANGUAGE

French French is the second most widely learned language in the world after English, and the fifth most widely spoken. With more than 220 million native speakers across more than 30 countries, it is an extremely useful language to learn. As the language of our nearest neighbour it remains highly sought-after by UK businesses. France is also the most-visited country in the world – and French is a valuable asset for those who go on to learn other Romance languages. During the Shell year, we will encourage and inspire you to be curious about the language and francophone culture. The course tackles the first theme of the GCSE course (People and lifestyle) and builds solid foundations in grammar and language specific skills. This is a continuation course and previous knowledge of French is preferred.

At Teddies, all pupils study at least one of French, Spanish and German until Sixth Form. In the Shell, pupils are prepared for the GCSE courses with the foundations of the languages. Shell pupils usually continue studying a language or languages that they already have studied and may take up new ones. Typically, French is studied by pupils with some prior experience of learning it; German and Spanish are often taken up as new languages.

German

Over 100 million people in Europe speak German as their mother tongue. This makes it the most widely spoken language on the continent. German is the official language in Germany and Austria and is also spoken widely in Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg and Belgium; it is learnt and spoken by a great many people around the world, too. Looking ahead to your life beyond

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