A little known subject to those who joined BRGS during an even year, this is because only intakes with an odd year number take French whereas the even year groups take Spanish. French, like Spanish, is also a Romance language, which is why German is the language that each year group does - so you do both a Romance and a Germanic language - that and Mr Wyton (German teacher) is Head of Languages and therefore changed German to the compulsory language.
As this language is only spoken by every other year group, it often causes difficulty during the Translatathon when one needs to translate from German to French etc. and often results in translations that should have been "I went on holiday for 2 weeks at the beach" becoming "je suis holidáy deux weeks en la Water Plácé."