Information for Senior Schools
Matthew Faulkner is Head of the Modern Foreign Language (MFL) Department and his contact details are as follows:
Email: mf@portregis.com
Telephone (D/L): 01747 856305
Please click here for information about the principal coursebooks used.
Please click here for information regarding the provision for French and Spanish in the timetable.
Some of our pupils study Spanish instead of French. We regularly write to senior schools which are listed as possible destination schools for pupils studying Spanish instead of French to let them know that these pupils may be coming to them. Please click here for information regarding Which pupils study French instead of Spanish.
Common Entrance
The Common Entrance papers are no longer divided into upper and lower tiers; the days of paper I and Paper II are no more. Instead, all candidates sit the same papers, and are invited to show their particular abilities within this single framework.
The principal distinction between candidates whom we prepare at Port Regis is that the more able candidates are taught to recognise and manipulate the past tenses (passé composé and imperfect), whereas the less able candidates are generally not taught to do so. The only past tense verbs which the latter are taught to recognise and use are “je suis allé” and “je suis né”.
Past tenses are not used in the exam questions and texts; it is open to candidates who can do so to show their knowledge in their written and spoken answers.
Scholarship
Pupils are prepared for scolarship exams in the Beta and Alpha forms. The syllabus goes some distance beyond the CE requirements, and touches many areas of the GCSE syllabus. Scholarship exams for most senior schools require pupils to demonstrate an advanced understanding of grammar and idiom, as well as to have a wide and expressive vocabulary. Extensive practice is given in the Common Academic Scholarship papers; pupils are also given focused practice in past papers from the schools to which they are intending to apply.
