Meet the Team

Hola, Bonjour! … Languages are an important part of Academy life. During lessons, you will be able to develop your knowledge; from not only a linguistic point of view, but you will also have opportunities to develop your cultural knowledge of European languages. Studying a language at GCSE will also enable you to achieve the English Baccalaureate award (EBacc).

The academy offers Spanish from beginner to A-Level and there are also small groups studying French at KS4. We have subscribed to ActiveLearn so that students studying GCSE in Years 10-11 can use online resources both in the academy and at home to develop their language skills using Viva for Spanish and Studio for French.

In the MFL department, we are eager to develop a love for language learning. Throughout your time at the Academy, you will have a variety of opportunities to practise what you have learnt in the classroom in authentic situations. We have ran numerous trips to Spanish restaurants, where students have had the opportunity to converse with native speakers. We have also had a theatre company deliver a play in Spanish to help develop our students’ listening skills. Various events run throughout the academic year in languages for example; spelling bees, Star of the Week awards evenings, languages café and we have even ran our own version of the Spanish festival La Tomatina.

The MFL department is also proud of the fact that we run various trips abroad each year for students across all key stages. Students at the Academy have visited numerous cities in both Spain and France - Santander, Seville, Granada, Malaga, Paris and Lille, to name but a few!

We encourage the use of technology to improve language learning and ensure home learning is also fun. We make use of a variety of web-based programmes, which are jam-packed with games and activities to help learners at every level to succeed in language learning - Quizlet, GCSEpod and many more! These web-based programmes also come as Apps for your mobile, ensuring that you have every opportunity to develop a broad knowledge of topic specific vocabulary and a solid knowledge of key grammatical points; both essential in order to achieve success in external examinations.

Whilst studying a language at The Sutton Academy, you will also have the opportunity to become a Language Leader. This a vital role in which students help to promote a love of learning languages across the Academy. Being a Language Leader enables you to act as a role model to other students and helps you to develop life-long skills such as planning, organisation and of course, leadership! Language leaders support the MFL department to run events such as open evening, deliver MFL sessions to students in local primary schools and also offer peer support to students who may need a bit of a helping hand.