Intent

Learning a foreign language is a necessary part of being a member of the wonderful multicultural city we live in and provides an opening to other cultures. A high-quality languages education should foster children’s curiosity and deepen their understanding of the world. The teaching should enable children to express their ideas and thoughts in another language and to understand and respond to its speakers, both in speech and in writing. It should also provide opportunities for them to communicate for practical purposes and provide the foundation for learning further languages. It is intended that when children leave Castor C of E Primary, they will have a natural curiosity and confidence to explore other countries, cultures and languages and accept that in our evolving multilingual society, speaking another language is a valuable skill to be able to communicate effectively with others. It is also recognised in our school vision statement that children should be fulfilling of their social potential, ‘empowering them to make a positive difference to the world’. As well as this, our curriculum equips children and engages children when continuing their language at secondary school as well as eventually preparing them for the opportunities to even study and work in other countries.

The national curriculum for languages aims to ensure that all pupils:

1. understand and respond to spoken and written language from a variety of authentic sources
2. 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
3. can write at varying length, for different purposes and audiences, using the variety of grammatical structures that they have learnt
4. discover and develop an appreciation of a range of writing in the language studied.

Implementation

We teach a carefully planned sequence of  French lessons, ensuring progressive coverage of the skills required by the national curriculum. Our units provide an introduction to the culture of French-speaking countries and communities. Our linear curriculum allows opportunity for children to gradually build on their skills; lessons are sequenced so that prior learning is considered and opportunities for revision of language and grammar are built in. Children are taught to express their ideas and thoughts in French, and we provide opportunities for our children to interact and communicate with others both in both speech through role play scenarios and in writing. Our scheme also appreciates the importance of children hearing authentic French an offers regular opportunities to listen to native speakers. We also place importance on offering insights of the cultures of French-speaking countries and communities.

In Lower KS2, children acquire basic skills and understanding of French with a strong emphasis placed on developing their Speaking and Listening skills. These will be embedded and further developed in Upper KS2, alongside Reading and Writing, gradually progressing onto more complex language concepts and greater learner autonomy.

The introduction and revision of key vocabulary and grammatical structures is built into each lesson. This vocabulary is then included in display materials and additional resources so that children have opportunities to repeat and revise their learning.

 

Impact

We measure the impact of our curriculum through the following methods:

• Observing children speaking and listening in lessons.
• Our interaction and support of children during their written work.
• Images and videos of children completing speaking and listening activities.
• Interviewing the pupils about their learning (pupil voice).
• Annual reporting of standards across the curriculum to parents.
• Learning walks.

The MFL subject leader will continually monitor the impact MFL teaching is having on the children’s learning, through work scrutinies, 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.

Teachers use their interaction with children in lessons to inform future planning and timetabling; ensuring children are supported and challenged appropriately.