More than 300 million people speak French across the world and it’s one of the official languages of the United Nations, the European Union, UNESCO, NATO, the International Olympic Committee, the International Red Cross and international courts. It’s also the most popular language at Key Stage 3 with over 122,000 students in England taking a French GCSE in 2022. Over 7,000 took a French A level in England in 2022, making it the second most popular language for post 16s.
Learning French helps students improve their career opportunities and increase their salary expectations and it is widely seen as the language of art, fashion, cuisine – and, of course, of love!
Check out our Schools Connect French portal which highlights opportunities to develop links with schools on both sides of the Channel. This supports the cooperation agreement signed by the French and British Education Ministries.
The British Council offers a number of projects to support international education in general. Take a look at the links below and see what you can integrate into your teachiing.
- Employ a language assistant at your school, college or university
- Where will languages take me? - a series of videos by people who use languages in their work
- Celebrate speaking - take part in our festival of speaking, held in spring each year
- International Education Week - held each November, this is a celebration of language learning with links to resources available throughout the year
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Read about the international partnership experience of a school in Yorkshire and one in north France.
Or check out our Support for language teaching page for more inspiration.