Intent
At Allendale Primary School we want our children to enjoy learning another language and think of themselves as linguists who can develop their interest and see language learning as an important pathway to foreign travel, hobbies and careers.
It is our intent that children in KS2 have a high quality education in modern foreign languages which develops their enjoyment and knowledge of learning not only another language but different cultures which supports their growing understanding of the world.
Our current MFL taught is French, however we strive to provide children with opportunities to experience a range of other languages. We aim to build the children’s ‘cultural capital’ so that they have a knowledge and understanding of the richness and diversity between cultures.
Our aim is for our children to feel confident engaging in spoken French and that they can develop their skills in reading, listening and writing. We aim to develop an interest and curiosity about language learning that they feel confident to pursue past KS2.
We believe that learning another language supports our wider curriculum and encourages our children to understand their own culture and celebrate similarities and differences in those of others.
The National Curriculum for languages aims to ensure that all pupils:
- Understand and respond to spoken and written language from a variety of authentic sources
- Speak with increasing confidence, fluency and spontaneity, finding ways of communicating what they want to say, including through discussion and asking questions, and continually improving the accuracy of their pronunciation and intonation
- Can write at varying length, for different purposes and audiences, using the variety of grammatical structures that they have learnt
- Discover and develop an appreciation of a range of writing in the language studied
Implementation:
It has been agreed within the Haydon Bridge partnership that French will be taught in primary schools as preparation for the teaching of French in KS3. The teaching of French focuses on speaking and listening skills as well as reading and writing French. The teaching of French is very practical, featuring a range of games, songs and activities. We are fortunate to have a specialist languages teacher on staff who can deliver quality French lessons using topics relevant to the children’s interests, providing them with the knowledge and skills to use their language if they go abroad or meet a native speaker.
We have the Jolie Ronde Scheme, supplemented by Early Start French which support non specialist teachers to deliver the French curriculum to their class, ensuring a range a balanced activities to ensure progression and revisiting of vocabulary and grammar. The variety of teaching approaches used are based on the teacher’s judgement and frequent use is made of video clips, not only as an aid to improving their listening and speaking skills, but to also engage children in developing their intercultural understanding.
All children are fully involved in language lessons. SEN children may require additional support or activities adapted for them.
Our EYFS and KS1 children learn about different cultures and languages throughout the curriculum and are encouraged to explore and develop their language skills.
Impact:
Our MFL curriculum is high quality, well thought out and is planned to demonstrate progression. We focus on progression of knowledge and skills and discreet vocabulary progression also forms part of the units of work. We measure the impact of our curriculum through the following methods:
- Observing children speaking and listening
- Images and videos of children participating in speaking and listening activities
- Talking to children about their learning, (pupil voice)
- Learning walks
- Displays
- Marking work
- Staff meetings
The MFL subject leader will continually monitor the impact MFL teaching is having on the children’s learning, through work scrutiny, to ensure the progress of knowledge and skills is being taught. They will also ensure the knowledge taught is retained by the children and continually revisited and that the learners are able to apply the skills they have been taught to a variety of different settings, showing independence with their learning.