German

Head of Department: Mrs Sandra Spiller

Exam board: Edexcel

The course covers a range of social, cultural and political topics relating to Germany and German speaking countries.
 
Much emphasis is placed on developing an understanding of aspects of German culture and in the course of the two years students study one literary text and one modern German film.
 
Students will have one lesson a week on a one-to-one basis with the German language assistant, in order to prepare for the oral examination at the end of Year 13. A major part of this oral examination will be a discussion of the student’s own individual research project, based on some element of German culture or society.
 
In addition, students will develop skills in translation, both to and from German and in writing critical and analytical essays in German. In Year 12, students study the media, the German education system, music in popular culture, the world of work, festivals and traditions, a German film plus nature and the environment. Topics studied in Year 13 include immigration and multicultural society, Germany since re-unification, East Germany society before re-unification, a work of German speaking literature and an independent research topic.
 
At the end of Year 13, there are three exams: a comprehension paper with listening and reading tasks; a writing paper, comprising two essays and a translation; an oral exam.

Exam Results

The average of the A Level results in German over the most recent three year period (2023, 2022, 2021) is:

A*29%
A* – A86%
A* – B100%