The Russian Department
The Russian department at Presdales is relatively small, yet extremely successful, and is proud to continue to offer students the chance of learning a language that is taught in very few schools across the county.
Our Aims
As a department we aim:
- To give our students the confidence to try
- To enable our students to make good progress and achieve the best they can
- To provide our students with a variety of ways to learn a language
- To develop and encourage an interest in Russian culture and, when feasible, offer the chance to see it for themselves
- To develop good communication and social skills
- To foster the understanding that speaking a foreign language is always an asset and can be the key to accessing certain careers
- To encourage language learners who seek to continue their studies beyond secondary education
In Year 7 students have the option of taking Russian as their second language. They begin by learning the Cyrillic alphabet, which, despite being visually quite different to the Latin script, is very easy to pronounce once you have learnt it. At the beginning of the course a significant amount of time is spent ensuring that students are confident both writing the cursive script and reading the printed script. Whilst developing their reading and writing skills students deal with new topics orally.
By the end of KS3 students are able to introduce themselves and their family, including giving their ages. They can also talk about their pets and where they live. They can discuss their eating habits and can go shopping for souvenirs, talk about their town and give directions. They can express their likes and dislikes about school and hobbies including viewing habits. They can also talk about when and where they do their hobbies, and how they get there. They can describe holidays; where they go and what they do there.
They will be able to understand, talk, read and write about all of the above topics. These four skills and the skill of translation are further developed in Years 8 and 9 during which students are introduced to the 3 tenses and are able to have more detailed discussions about their habits and routines including.
When possible, we participate in national competitions for students of Russian as well as the Russian Language International Olympiad competition which takes place in Moscow every four years.