Beyond that we have five principle aims in teaching pupils a modern foreign language:

• To enable pupils to communicate effectively in a foreign language with people from abroad, in specific areas of clear relevance to the pupils' needs.
• To develop in pupils a positive attitude to their study of a foreign modern language, chiefly through providing them with the maximum opportunity to achieve success in using the language and also by making the work interesting and enjoyable. 
• To give pupils contact with and insight into a culture other than their own, in order to develop the pupils' European and global awareness, to equip them for life in a multi-cultural world and to enable them to travel abroad with confidence, interest and advantage. 
• To develop the pupils' insight into the nature of language and thereby to develop their independence in using and learning the foreign language. 
• To develop in pupils certain intellectual capacities, such as their information research skills and especially their powers of concentration, analysis and inferential reasoning. 

Pupils in the Lower School are taught French and German. In the Third Form Spanish is also an option. All pupils study a modern foreign language to GCSE and those who wish to can take two. The GCSE course will prepare them for practical communication and further study of the language in the Sixth Form.

Study of a foreign language is compulsory for the IB Diploma. The Language B course is designed for those students already possessing some previous experience of the language. This is an exciting course which allows students and teachers the freedom to explore a variety of topics, including French/German Culture, Social Relationships, Media, Leisure, Global issues, Politics, Education and the World of Work, or in fact whatever particularly interests them about the French/German speaking world. The aim is to expose students to a rich palette of areas of French/German life, but at the same time to provide them with the tools to be able to recognise and reproduce authentic written and spoken language.

The department also offers Ab initio Spanish. This outstanding course is part of the group 2 second language and gives students the opportunity to take up a new foreign language in the Sixth Form. It is available to beginners, i.e. students who have very little or no previous experience of Spanish.