The syllabus content is organised around five themes:
- My personal world
- Lifestyle and wellbeing
- My neighbourhood
- Media and technology
- Studying and my future
- Travel and tourism
All students take the following four examinations:
- Paper 1 Speaking in German
- Paper 2 Listening and understanding in German
- Paper 3 Reading and understanding in German
- Paper 4 Writing in German
All students take the following four examinations, each worth 25% of the final grade:
- Paper 1 Speaking: Students are assessed on their ability to communicate and interact effectively through speaking German. The assessment covers three core tasks: a read aloud task, role play, and a picture-based task with conversation.
- Paper 2 Listening: Students are assessed on their understanding of spoken German, and their ability to transcribe spoken German into written German. Foundation Tier assessment is 45 minutes and Higher Tier assessment is 60 minutes.
- Paper 3 Reading: Students are assessed on their understanding of written German across a range of different text types, including advertisements, emails, letters, articles and literary texts. Foundation Tier assessment is 45 minutes. Higher Tier assessment is 1 hour.
- Paper 4 Writing: Students produce various responses of varying lengths to express facts, opinions and ideas in German. Foundation Tier assessment is 1 hour and 10 minutes. Higher Tier assessment is 1 hour and 20 minutes.
The listening, reading and writing skills are assessed at the end of Year 11 as external examinations. The speaking skills are assessed in the Summer Term of Year 11. There is no controlled assessment in this subject.