FRENCH French remains one of the major European languages, spoken by 120 million people in different countries. As an ‘A’ level subject, it has been in decline nationally for a number of years. Not so at WGHS! An ‘A’ level in a language still upholds the ‘gold standard’ respected by universities. We are about to embark on the third round of a successful exchange link with a lycée in Belfort, northern France. The students in this lycée learn some of their ‘A’ level subjects via English, instead of via their mother tongue. GERMAN German is also an important European language. The subject enjoys high uptake at Key Stage 4 and post-16. A year 8 visit to the German Rhineland took place in June 2005. JAPANESE
Japanese presents the challenge of a different writing system and gives an insight into a culture which is uniquely different from our own. In April 2004, a group of year 10 girls visited Japan. Many of these girls are shortly to take their ‘A’ level in Japanese. We were recently named the top school in the country for Japanese. RUSSIAN The school has taught Russian for over four decades. During that time, it has been one of our most successful subjects. It is taught in very few UK schools. As such, pupils who take up Russian are undoubtedly learning a language which will have rarity value with the continued expansion of the European Union. We were recently named the top school in the country for Russian. The Cyrillic alphabet (named after St. Cyril, who invented it!) may look complicated, but in fact it is a very easy language to pronounce. The school has a strong pen-friend link with a Russian school in Snjezhinsk. | 
