National assessments: French vocabulary challenges for Year 7 pupils

Even with clues!

Last autumn, more than 810,000 Year 7 pupils from both state schools and private schools under contract took part in the national assessments. These tests measure their skills in French and mathematics, while allowing results to be compared with previous editions. This was the ninth annual national assessment.

French results in the national assessments

According to DEPP (the Directorate of Evaluation, Forecasting and Performance), the overall standard in French was unchanged from the previous year. Compared with the first edition, however, results have risen markedly by six points. The highest-performing pupils continue to improve, while those in the lowest-performing groups have fallen back by 3.9 points.

French nevertheless remains challenging for secondary school pupils. Some questions in this national assessment recorded worrying success rates, despite the clues provided.

Do secondary school pupils have a vocabulary problem?

The French tests assess reading and listening comprehension, as well as command of the language. In 2025, 92.8% of pupils could identify the definition of the word “succulent”. The expression “chronic illness”, however, proved confusing. Pupils had to answer this vocabulary-analysis question: “the nouns chronology and chronometer, as well as the adjective chronic, come from the Greek word chronos = time. A chronic illness is therefore an illness that... ‘lasts several years’, ‘causes a great deal of suffering’, ‘is in the process of healing’ or ‘is extremely widespread’.”

Although the wording included several clues, only 71.3% selected the right answer. In other words, one quarter of 11-year-olds did not know the meaning of this expression, even with some help.

“Hypothermia” causes further confusion

That was not the only finding. The annual national assessment also showed that one Year 9 pupil in two does not know what “hypothermia” means, despite several revealing clues. They were asked: “If hypotension means that someone’s blood pressure is lower than normal, and if a thermometer is an instrument used to measure temperature, what does ‘being hypothermic’ mean?”

The possible answers included “that the temperature is higher than normal”, “that the thermometer is smaller than normal”, “that the temperature is lower than normal” and “that the blood pressure is lower than normal”. Just 56.3% of the pupils surveyed found the correct answer - barely one pupil in two.