Year 12 topics

Social issues and trends – Aspects of German-speaking society

• Familie im Wandel (The changing nature of family)
• Die digitale Welt (The digital world)
• Jugendkultur: Mode, Musik und Fernsehen (Youth culture: fashion, music and television)

Political and artistic culture – Artistic culture in the German-speaking world

• Feste und Traditionen (Festivals and traditions)
• Kunst und Architektur (Art and architecture)
• Das Berliner Kulturleben damals und heute (The cultural life of Berlin then and now)

We will also study the film “Goodbye, Lenin!” towards the latter end of Year 12.

Year 13 topics

Social issues and trends – Multiculturalism in German-speaking society

• Einwanderung (Immigration)
• Integration (Integration)
• Rassismus (Racism)

Political and artistic culture – Aspects of political life in the German-speaking world

• Deutschland und die Europaïsche Union (Germany and the EU)
• Die Politik und die Jugend (Youth politics)
• Die Wiedervereinigung (The reunification and its consequences)

We will also study the novel “Der Vorleser” and student will undertake an Individual Research Project, which involves researching an aspect of the German speaking world. The majority part of the speaking exam is comprised of a discussion around your Independent Research Project.

The German A Level involves considerable development of previously taught grammatical knowledge. Expansion of grammatical knowledge and also of vocabulary continues throughout the course and will enable students to express themselves more accurately, fluently and with more complexity. The course also builds on some of the topics explored at GCSE and gives them more depth and breadth. We look at the various topics from different angles and learn how to express our thoughts about them in German. In doing so, we learn a lot about the culture, history and traditions of German-speaking countries.

Year 12 assessments comprise of Paper 1: Listening, reading and writing and Paper 3: Speaking exam

Year 13 A Level exam comprise:

• Paper 1: Listening, reading and writing
• Paper 2: Writing exam
• Paper 3: Speaking exam

Please refer to our entry requirements document.

You will have the skills required to study German further or to study any other language. German can be combined with lots of other subjects at degree level and you can also start a new language from scratch. It would be directly relevant to a wide range of careers – translating, bilingual secretarial work, civil service, travel & tourism, journalism, teaching and international business and law, and accountancy. The need for a skill combined with the ability to speak a language is increasingly in demand in many types of employment. Britain is desperately short of well qualified graduates with language skills. Employment opportunities for those who study languages, even when combined with something else, are very good indeed.