Specialist Language College Status

Clitheroe Royal Grammar School has been a Specialist Language College since September 2006 and was re-designated in 2010.

Specialist School Status has without doubt enhanced the opportunities for language learning for students, staff, parents and the wider community.  In Years 7 and 8 students learn three languages and continue with at least one language through to GCSE.  50% of our students regularly opt to study two GCSE languages and some study three.  Latin thrives in our school and a healthy number of students opt for this subject, which of course significantly enhances their study of modern foreign languages.

Language results at GCSE are amongst the best in the school and for the last two years our GCSE German statistics have placed us as top school in the country for both boys and girls – an achievement of which we are extremely proud!  We have an extremely healthy take-up of languages at AS and A Level and again, our results are consistently excellent.

Students in school can and do take advantage of our extra-curricular language provision.  We provide lessons in Mandarin Chinese, Italian and Russian and several students have gained asset languages and GCSE qualifications in these languages. 

In addition to their work in our school, some of our specialist language teachers have provided teaching in French, German, Spanish and Latin in seven of our local feeder primary schools and the local community has benefited greatly from our evening classes in Spanish, German, Russian and Mandarin Chinese.

Our language department provides linguistic and cultural support to the Geography department with their Year 7 teaching of Japan.

The TLT, Talking Languages Together Committee, is an active and successful group within school and meets on a weekly basis.  Its membership consists of highly motivated students across the age range.  Our aim is to provide enhanced language opportunities and more cultural awareness for students of Clitheroe Royal Grammar School and the wider community.  Students have also benefited from the teaching of our Slovenian Comenius Language Assistant and last summer were sufficiently proficient to pass on their newly found knowledge and skills to groups of local primary school pupils during our annual Primary Language day.  Our students also taught Italian, Mandarin and Russian language and culture on that occasion.

An audit of TLT language skills amongst our students has shown knowledge of a wide range of languages including French, German, Spanish, Italian, Urdu, Russian, Latin, Hungarian, Portuguese, Flemish and Mandarin Chinese.

TLT works together with the school canteen to arrange a variety of activities to celebrate each Chinese New Year.  Chinese food was available along with a variety of quizzes and competitions and origami displays.

Our aim for the future is to carry on enjoying our language learning and teaching in school and in our feeder primary schools.  We will continue working to embed the international ethos of the school and to increase appreciation and awareness of different cultures and languages.