Scheme of Work
FCSE and GCSE combined teaching
For teaching AQA specifications
AQA Education (AQA) is a registered charity (number 1073334) and a company limited by guarantee registered
in England and Wales (number 3644723). Our registered address is AQA, Devas Street, Manchester M15 6EX.
It is important to have a Scheme of Work in place in order to guarantee that
the specification is covered fully by the teacher or teachers charged with the
delivery of the course. Heads of Department and their teachers will choose
what approach to take; they know the nature of their institution, the strengths
and enthusiasms of their teachers and the levels of ability and knowledge of
their students.
What follows, therefore, is just one possible approach.
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Scheme of Work - Combined Teaching FCSE and GCSE
Overview
FCSE one year within a GCSE two year course – one approach
Year 1 is divided into four units with the first three units chosen from a different theme from the
FCSE themes and topics. Each topic is taught and assessed over a period of ten weeks. These
three topic areas also cover three of the main areas from the GCSE specification and could be the
areas for controlled assessments, either spoken or written. Further study would cover the other
GCSE topic areas, with the final controlled assessment, and listening and reading practice.
Below is an example of FCSE choices linked with GCSE contexts and topics.
Year 1
September/October/November
Area 1 – 10 weeks
EDUCATION AND FUTURE PLANS
November/December/January/February
Area 2 – 10 weeks
HOLIDAYS AND TRAVEL
February/March/April/May
Area 3 – 10 weeks
HEALTHY LIFESTYLE
May
FCSE accreditation
May/June/July
Area 4 – 10 weeks
ALL ABOUT ME
Teachers have access to the FCSE assessments so should ensure that all relevant vocabulary
and structures are covered prior to the assessments being taken. Example areas for coverage are
given on the next page. For FCSE some areas of content may only be assessed for recognition
rather than production.
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Topic Area
FCSE Content and Grammar
Education and
Future Plans
School description –adjectives, present
tense
Subjects – preferences, opinions and
reasons, present tense
Teachers – adjectives, preferences,
opinions and reasons, present tense
Context – a
presentation about
my school
Holidays and Travel
Context – a blog
about my holidays
Rules and Uniform – il faut, on, devoir, pouvoir
Ideal School – je voudrais
Primary School – imperfect tense
Connectives throughout
Usual Holiday – destination, transport,
accommodation, length, activities, opinions
and reasons, present tense
Weather – present tense
Holiday preferences – prepositions, negatives,
intensifiers, opinions and reasons, adverbs
Weather – present, past, future tenses
Past Holiday – use of different pronouns, time
phrases and sequence words
Future Plans – future tenses+ j’espère etc.
Ideal Holiday – conditional tense, je rêve de etc.
Connectives throughout
Future Holiday Plans – immediate future
tense
Extension
Subjects – opinions je pense que etc.
Teachers – descriptions, opinions, direct object
pronouns
Rules and Uniform – description,
preferences, opinion and reasons
School Routine – reflexive verbs, perfect
Tense
Future Plans – immediate future
Previous holidays – past tenses
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GCSE Content and Grammar
( as FCSE + below)
Future Plans – future tenses + j’ai l’intention etc.
School Routine –
reflexive verbs, indefinite
adjectives, present and
past tenses, present
participles, après avoir
etc.
Idiom
Best Day – comparatives,
superlatives, commencer
à, décider de etc.,
narration of events
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Healthy Lifestyle
Context – a survey
about lifestyles
Food and Drink – vegetarianism, fast food,
preferences, opinions and reasons,
negative expressions, partitive article,
present tense
Food and Drink –now, when young, restaurants,
foreign food preferences, avoir expressions,
present, past and future tenses
Exercise –what, when, preferences,
opinions and reasons, present, perfect and
immediate future tenses
Exercise – how you relax present, past and future
tenses
Sports – preferences, opinions and reasons
present, perfect and immediate future
tenses
Illness – symptoms
Sports – extreme sports, description of sports
person and opinion, future plans,
Stress – ideas for reduction, sleep
Stress – ideas for relaxation, exams
Celebrity Influence – 3rd
person singular,
subjunctive eg il faut que
je fasse …
Illness –description of past illness
Smoking – opinions and reasons
Alcohol – opinions and reasons
Drugs – opinions and reasons
All About Me
Context – a new
friend on a social
networking site
wants to know more
about you
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Eating disorders/obesity – adverbs
Connectives throughout
A personal description – name, age physical A personal description – personality, what you
description, present tense
used to be like, present tense, imperfect tense
Your family - parents, brothers and sisters,
pets, descriptions, opinions and reasons,
possessive adjectives, present tense
Your family – relationships, reflexive verbs,
present tense
Your friends – descriptions, activities
together, present and past tenses
Your friends – personality, ideal friend
description, conditional tense
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Where you live – house, region, local
attractions, opinions and reasons, present
tense
Where you live – bedroom, local facilities,
opinions and reasons, future plans, present and
future tenses
Leisure activities- what you do, when, how
often, who with, negative expressions,
present tense
Leisure activities – last weekend, past tenses
Connectives throughout
Comparison with French
town
FCSE listening and reading assessments could be completed by all students.
FCSE students would complete speaking and writing tasks for each topic area whilst GCSE students would produce either a
speaking or writing controlled assessment on each of the four areas.
Year 2
Coverage of remaining areas of GCSE specification, revision of Education and Future Plans, Holidays and Health and preparation
for Listening and Reading Examinations. Repeat of Controlled Assessments as necessary.
Following timings are approximate as more or less time will need to be dedicated to a specific topic dependant on the need for
further Controlled Assessment completion.
5 weeks each for:
• Relationships and Choices - Relationships, Future Plans, Social Issues
• Free Time and The Media – Free time, Shopping, New Technology
• Home and Local Area – Home and Region, Special Occasions
• Environment – At home, Global issues
• Current and Future Jobs – Job applications, Different Jobs
3 weeks each for:
• Health
• Holidays
• School
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Topic Area
GCSE Content and Grammar
Relationships
with family and
friends
Descriptions – qualities, faults, adjectives,
intensifiers, comparatives, superlatives, present
tense
Ideal friend– adjectives, conditional tense
Relationships – reflexive verbs, direct object
pronouns, emphatic pronouns, present tense
Previous relationships –descriptions, imperfect tense
Future plans
Marriage/Partnership –future tenses, future
indicators
Social issues
and equality
Vocabulary associated with - unemployment,
tolerance, immigration, homelessness, racism,
charities, crime
Free time
activities
Vocabulary associated with television, film, music,
sport, leisure facilities
Leisure activities – time phrases, y, en, depuis, si
expressions with weather, present, past and future
tenses
Invitations – modal verbs, si, on
Vocabulary associated with shopping and
transactions, use of ‘vous’, quantities, demonstrative
adjectives
Locations - prepositions of place
Shopping and
fashion
Extension
Comparison of own views
with those of others both at
home and in French
speaking countries
Detailed narration of
activities over a weekend
Comparison of own situation
with others
Pocket money – helping at home, frequency
phrases, indirect object pronouns, present and past
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tenses Fashion – clothes, demonstrative pronouns,
preferences, opinions, present and past tenses
Money
Vocabulary associated with banks, post offices and
transactions
New
Technology
Vocabulary associated with computers,
communications, social networks, advantages and
disadvantages, preferences, opinions and reasons,
present and future tenses
Home and
Region
House – descriptions, adjectives, intensifiers,
possessive pronouns, comparatives, weather, si
expressions, preferences, opinions and reasons,
present, past future and conditional tenses
Home Life – Meals, when, typical food, jobs at home,
preferences, opinions, reasons, present and past
tenses
Town and Region – descriptions, local facilities,
locations, comparisons, use of on, intensifiers,
prepositions of place, present tense
Special
Occasions
Vocabulary associated with specific celebrations,
food, gifts, descriptions, preferences, opinions,
reasons, invitations and excuses, modal verbs,
present, past, future and conditional tenses
Environment at
home
Vocabulary associated with recycling, litter, pollution,
transport, green spaces, opinions and reasons,
present, past, future and conditional tenses
Global issues
Vocabulary associated with climate change,
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Local festival – narration of
events
Comparison with a French
town
Comparison with Special
Occasions in French
Speaking countries
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deforestation, wild life conservation, war, famine,
opinions and reasons, present, future and
conditional tenses
Job
Applications
Vocabulary associated with formal letter writing,
work experience, use of vous, adjectives, venir de,
être en train de, quand with future tense, present
and past tenses
Different Jobs
Vocabulary associated with types of jobs,
advantages and disadvantages of part time, full time,
working alone, with people, inside, outside gap year,
etc preferences, opinions and reasons, impersonal
verbs, present tense
Health
Vocabulary associated with doctors, chemists,
hospitals and accidents, different pronouns, present
participles, imperatives, present and past tenses
Revision of previous content
Holidays
Vocabulary associated with cafés, restaurants,
accommodation, transport, directions, breakdown,
tourist office, excursions, lost property, complaints,
imperatives, interrogative forms, use of ‘vous’, use of
‘pour aller’
Revision of previous content
School
Revision of previous content
Detailed account of work
experience
Write a detailed CV
Comparison of your school
with one in Africa
Final weeks to be used for practise for Listening and Reading GCSE Examination Papers.
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Please find below a list of suggested strategies, resources and activities.
Communication Strategies:
• Use of visual clues
• Recognition of cognates and near cognates
• Ignore words which are not essential for completion of the task
• Listen for gist
• Use knowledge of grammar and context to aid understanding
• Use knowledge of patterns between French and English to aid understanding (eg gender
patterns, prefixes, -aine, -ette)
• Transfer knowledge to new vocabulary (eg recycler, recyclable, ferme, fermier)
• Learn how to use a dictionary effectively
• Use knowledge of social and cultural context
• Check work applying grammatical knowledge (eg verb endings, adjectival agreements)
• Learn pronunciation rules (eg silent endings, graphemes)
Resources:
• GCSE course books
• Listening materials
• Authentic material and realia
• Video/DVD
• Websites (eg French sites, TES, quiz sites, games sites, blogs, forums)
• ICT software
• Worksheets
Suggested activities:
• Starters such as word searches, anagrams, odd one out, bingo, definition bingo etc.
• Information gap exercises
• Categorising vocabulary and grammatical structures
• Matching activities eg Questions and answers
• Positive, negative, positive/negative decisions about text
• True, False or Not Mentioned
• Who questions about a series of texts
• Surveys
• Thinking skills activities
• Speaking activities eg I went to market and I bought
• Form filling activities
• Decide on the Grade
• Information gap work
• Grid completion
• Fault Finder activities
• Questions about a text
• Quizzes eg Millionaire, Jetset
• Pair work activities from a series of prompts
• Photo quizzes
• Design a leaflet
• E-mail links with French speaking country
• Plenary activities peer and self-assessment
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Features of a Scheme of Work
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Language content
Expectations and outcomes
Learning objectives
Resources
Suggested activities
Further opportunities
The above suggested pattern ensures that the content of the specification is covered. However,
the topics and contexts are merely a vehicle to ensure that pupils progress in their language
learning and have opportunities to reapply what they have learnt in terms of grammatical
structures, vocabulary and skills. The hope is that pupils will become increasingly independent in
their use of language. The principle of recycling and reapplying language should therefore form the
main feature of a planned scheme of work. When approaching a topic from the specification,
teachers will wish to consider what new language content is necessary to extend their pupils
knowledge and what language needs to be revised and consolidated. It is important to
demonstrate to pupils that they can use previously learnt language structures in different contexts.
They should be encouraged to become more adept at manipulating the language themselves.
When writing the scheme, teachers will want to consider what most of their pupils will be able to do
in listening, reading, speaking and writing. Some pupils will not have made as much progress as
others, and the expectations will be different for these pupils. At the same time, some will progress
more quickly than others. The scheme of work will seek to identify what can be expected from
these three groups of pupils. By considering what outcomes are desirable, teachers will be able to
match their expectations to something concrete. If the scheme of work as a whole provides a longterm plan, clarifying objectives at each stage helps to create shorter term plans. Sequencing of the
learning objectives promotes pupils.
Once objectives have been identified, teachers will want to think about what resources are
available to them in the classroom. In addition to commercially produced textbooks and workbooks,
cassettes and videos/DVDs, departments will have access to their own banks of materials, not
forgetting the need to select the most appropriate ICT resources. These activities should be left
open ended for colleagues to add their own suggestions or to adapt activities themselves. The
suggestions are particularly helpful for newer teachers or supply colleagues. Teachers will wish to
highlight in the scheme of work opportunities to include links to other areas of the curriculum, such
as citizenship and key skills, and the broadening of cultural awareness.
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