Meet Beatrice
Beatrice started Headington in September 2013 in Upper 4 and stayed until Sixth Form., studying Spanish, French and Italian at A Level. She completed a degree in Modern Languages (Spanish, French and Italian) with a year abroad at Royal Holloway, University of London, graduating in 2022 with a First. She spent half her year abroad studying at La Sorbonne in Paris and the other half studying at Universidadd de Murcia. She is now looking for a career working in international business, with her language skills enabling her to communicate more easily with clients and colleagues.
Focus on your studies but also take advantage of all the extra-curricular activities on offer.
Headington has enabled me to do what interested me the most and therefore, I really enjoyed my time there. I made great friends and the staff were all very supportive and gave great advice.
I was able to study three languages for GCSE. For A Level I was originally planning to study one language and two other subjects but, given my strength in languages, I was advised to study three languages at A Level which I was happy to do as these were my best subjects. This then provided the foundations for studying languages at university. The weekly oral classes with the native language assistants really helped to improve my speaking skills and the classes with the teachers deepened my knowledge about the culture of each country.
My advice to someone interested in going to Headington would be to focus on your studies but also take advantage of all the extra-curricular activities on offer like dance or drama. The Headington Dance Studio is great!
When studying a language spend as much time as possible in the country of the target language and make the effort to interact with locals. I was fortunate to be able to spend time in Spain, France and Italy which helped me to improve my communication skills in each language.
Use different methods for learning new vocabulary, whether it be reading, listening to music, or watching a film in the target language as you never stop learning new vocabulary. Watch videos that people create on social media to listen to different accents and speeds at which people talk, so that when it comes to exams your ears are fully tuned in.
