Equip your students with the international language of politics and culture
OxfordAQA International GCSE French is designed to engage and enthuse learners, equipping them with the acquisition and transactional skills to thrive in their new language. We see learning a language as more than just an academic skill, it’s a gateway to discover new cultures, countries and ways of living.
- OxfordAQA International GCSE French is based on AQA’s market-leading UK French specification. Trusted by teachers in England for its rigour, accessibility and fairness, you can be sure that your students will be in the safest hands.
- Designed as an introduction course and to build the foundations for further study in the second most widely learned foreign language after English. French is also the official language of key global organisations, such as the United Nations, UNESCO and NATO, and can open doors to global citizenship.
- Our expert team have worked to tailor the specification for international schools, so you can be confident that it is culturally sensitive with vocabulary lists suited to the needs of international students and multi-cultural classrooms.
- As part of our Fair Assessment commitment, all of our language qualifications are designed to be accessible for non-native English speakers. This means that, whilst the exams will test students’ ability in their new language, the English used for instructions and questions in the exams will be accessible to all.
International GCSE French (9265)
View the switching guide to see the differences between your old International GCSE French specification and the OxfordAQA specification (version updated September 2023).
OxfordAQA International GCSE French covers the following topics:
Theme 1: Identity and culture
Theme 2: Local, national, international and global areas of interest
Theme 3: Current and future study and employment
We have adopted a consistent, thematic approach across our languages and International GCSE English as a Second Language specifications. We hope your International GCSE French students will be reassured by this familiar format and your school can reap the benefits in terms of efficient curriculum planning and cross-curricular opportunities.
OxfordAQA provides the resources and advice you need to get started with and teach the International GCSE French specification effectively.
- Download the specification
- Read our switching guide
- View our training courses to help you deliver OxfordAQA International GCSE French
- Approved textbooks and resources published by Oxford University Press
We have too many International GCSE French resources to list here, so please visit our resources for teachers area to see them all, including:
- Schemes of work to allow you to plan how to deliver the specification in a way that will best suit you and your students
- Teaching guidance to outline clearly the scope of teaching and learning
- Topic tests and mock exam analysers to allow you to track your students’ progress throughout the teaching year.
Assessment covers all 4 skills – Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening.
Paper 1 – Listening:
- 50 minutes
- 40 marks
- 25% of GCSE
Paper 2 – Speaking:
- 20 minutes (including 10 minutes to prepare)
- 40 marks
- 25% of GCSE
Paper 3 – Reading:
- 1 hour
- 60 marks
- 25% of GCSE
Paper 4 – Writing:
- 1 hour 15 minutes
- 60 marks
- 25% of GCSE
We are confident our assessments will deliver the right results for your students. We want to help you to attract students of all abilities to languages and to deliver the assessments and results you and your students deserve.
With OxfordAQA, within the receptive skills papers (Reading and Listening) 55% and 80% respectively of the questions are written in English. We believe that in the context of a multilingual classroom, this approach facilitates the exam preparation process, allowing teachers to build familiarity with the rubrics.
For more details, please see the full specification document.
Re-sits
- Linear: students sit all exams at the end of the course.
- Students cannot re-sit individual components.
- Students can re-take the whole qualification as many times as they wish.
Take a look at:
- The OxfordAQA International GCSE French switching guide
- Example specimen exam paper and mark scheme
You must be an approved OxfordAQA centre to enter students for our exams. Make sure you become an OxfordAQA centre before you start teaching a course.
