The School has been a Specialist Language College since 2005 and is committed to the development of language and cultural understanding throughout the School and the community. The Modern Languages Faculty is an active and dynamic group of teaching and support staff that have high expectations of all our students.

The Faculty has 7 full time and 5 part-time teachers, 8 of whom are native speakers. We are also supported by three native speaking assistants and a Faculty Learning Mentor. There are six teaching rooms (all equipped with interactive whiteboards), two rooms used by the assistants for individual or small group work and we have our own computers (one dedicated room with 30 computers and a mobile trolley containing 15 computers) where students are able to access various pieces of language software.

The OFSTED report in March commented 'The language specialism is leading many initiatives in the School and is making an increasingly strong impact on all aspects of school life' this includes a pilot student lesson observation scheme which is now being rolled out across the School, we have a strong student voice committee, we are piloting two international language qualifications at KS4 for those students who have taken GCSE early - the DELE and the DELF, we coordinate a secondary group of MFL specialists across the four Canterbury and Swale partnerships, we support 33 primary schools through the outreach/lead teacher scheme and we have organised a Resources Fest for colleagues in primary for the last three years (we were the first in Kent to do so).

We offer adult classes in beginner and intermediate French/Spanish (please contact mperkins@bartoncourt.org for more information) and support adult MFL learning at local primary schools in rotation as well as at the Stepping Stones Nursery in Canterbury.