Overview 

German at Key Stage 3 introduces students to practical communication skills, cultural awareness, and foundational grammar. Through the Echo course series, students build confidence in listening, speaking, reading, and writing while exploring everyday topics relevant to young people. The subject encourages curiosity about language, develops memory and problem‑solving skills, and prepares students for GCSE study. 

Curriculum Intent 

The German curriculum aims to: 

• Develop confident communicators who can understand and produce spoken and written German. 

• Build strong grammatical foundations, including tense formation, sentence structure, and key linguistic patterns. 

• Foster cultural understanding of German‑speaking countries. 

• Encourage resilience, creativity, and independence in language learning. 

• Equip students with transferable skills such as inference, memorisation, and structured thinking. 

• Prepare students for GCSE German through a clear progression of vocabulary, grammar, and communicative competence. 

Curriculum Implementation 

Teaching Approach 

• Interactive lessons combining speaking, listening, reading, and writing. 

• Use of authentic materials (videos, songs, menus, timetables). 

• Regular retrieval practice to strengthen phonics, vocabulary and grammar retention. 

• Modelling and scaffolding to support extended writing and speaking. 

Sequencing of Learning 

• Building on the foundations laid in Year 7 and Year8, Year 9 introduces more complex structures, three‑tense work, and GCSE‑style tasks. 

• Grammar and vocabulary are revisited and deepened across units. 

Assessment 

• Combination of formative and summative assessments. 

• Skills assessed: listening, speaking, reading, writing, translation, dictation. 

• End‑of‑unit tests, vocabulary quizzes, speaking tasks, extended writing. 

• Use of success criteria aligned with GCSE expectations. 

Curriculum Impact 

Success is measured through: 

• Progress: Students demonstrate secure knowledge of vocabulary and grammar, shown through assessments and classwork. 

• Outcomes: Students produce increasingly accurate and extended spoken and written German. 

• Student Voice: Learners report increased confidence, enjoyment, and cultural interest. 

• Examples of Work: Extended writing using multiple tenses, role‑plays, dialogues, and comprehension tasks. 

• Preparation for KS4: Students enter GCSE with strong foundations in grammar, phonics, and communication. 

Curriculum Structure

Key Stage 3

Year	Topics / Units	Key Knowledge & Skills
9	Free time  Health  School  Future	Secure pronunciation skills  Narrating events in the present, past and future  Using modal verbs (can, must, want) and reflexive verbs  Gender and the case system (Nominative, Accusative, Dative)  Word order (inversion, placement of adverb phrases, conjunctions)

Textbooks: 

• Echo 2, Echo 3 

Useful Websites: 

• Languages Online  

https://www.languagesonline.org.uk/Hotpotatoes/germanindex.html#gsc.tab=0  

• StudyStack 

Y7 U1 Hello: www.studystack.com/flashcard-3842466  

Y7 U2 Family: www.studystack.com/flashcard-3842472  

Y7 U3 School: www.studystack.com/flashcard-3808327  

Y7 U4 Free time: www.studystack.com/flashcard-3808327  

Y8 U1 Home: www.studystack.com/flashcard-3842482  

Y8 U2 Town: www.studystack.com/flashcard-3842484  

Y8 U3 Holidays: www.studystack.com/flashcard-3842486  

Y8 U4 Shopping: www.studystack.com/flashcard-3842490  

Y9 U1 Free time: www.studystack.com/flashcard-3842493  

Y9 U2 Health: www.studystack.com/flashcard-3842497  

Y9 U3 School: www.studystack.com/flashcard-3808330  

Y9 U4 Future: www.studystack.com/flashcard-3842504  

Enrichment 

Clubs, trips.