Spanish is the main foreign language at The Duston School and starts from the Primary school where pupils have at least half an hour in Spanish once a week. Pupils then study Spanish until the end of Year 9 and can choose to continue this at GCSE level or begin German which is a two year GCSE ab initio course.

Over the course of pupils’ study of a Modern Foreign language they cover the following topics which are studied in more depth as pupils move from KS3 into KS4.

Departmental philosophy: MFL at the Duston School.

❝To have another language is to possess a second soul.❞
‒Charlemagne

With the world becoming ever smaller due to the massive influence of social media we do not want our children’s experience of the world to be limited to one voice. MFL at The Duston School aims to broaden your child’s horizons and spark an interest in other cultures and languages. With an established Spanish trip; alternate years to Barcelona/Madrid, a joint German/ History trip to Berlin and the promise of an exchange with the St Katharinen Gymnasium in Oppenheim we hope to develop and maintain an interest in the world around us.

Expect your child to be taught about other cultures and enjoy learning about foreign traditions and customs using a foreign language confidently and accurately.

The Faculty of Modern Languages is run by Lisa Greaves; Mrs Greaves speaks French, German and Spanish and gained a 2:1 degree from The University of Wales, Swansea in 1992. She has twenty five years teaching experience, has travelled the world extensively and has lived and taught in Switzerland, France and Germany. The faculty also has Mrs Isabel Zafra who shares her time between the Languages and Maths faculties. Mrs Zafra has a Mathematics degree and teaching qualification from University of Valencia. She speaks Spanish, English and Catalan and has been teaching for more than ten years between Spain and England. Mrs Zafra set up the Spanish club and bilingual magazine; Creando Escuela which is a termly magazine which involves all year groups of the school. Spanish specialist and German teacher Mr Tom Collins speaks Spanish fluently, having studied the language at University and lived in Spain and Chile. Tom has a 2:1 degree in Spanish and Politics from Queen Mary University, London, a  Master’s degree in Latin American Sociology from the University of Newcastle and a PGCE teaching qualification from the University of York. Tom has 6 years teaching experience in British secondary schools and is passionate about travel and foreign cultures, music and art. Mrs Eva Martinez is a Spanish native speaker who trained and worked as a lawyer in Spain. She later moved to the UK in 2001, has retrained as a Qualified Teacher of Spanish and is truly passionate about the teaching of her mother tongue to her students. New to the MFL faculty from July 2018 is Miss Rachel Temple Fry; Rachel speaks fluent Spanish and French and graduated in Modern Languages from St Johns College Cambridge in 2016. She has travelled in a lot of Latin America and has lived in Spain, Bolivia, Peru and Mexico. Previously she taught EFL before doing a PGCE in Exeter. She is passionate about music, art and sport. 

• Awareness of different cultures
• Communication skills
• Presenting written information clearly
• Speaking and writing in another language
• Speaking in groups.
• Understanding written information

What career paths will open up to me if I study a language? In no particular order of importance: