Modern Foreign Languages

                      MFL Curriculum Statement

“To learn a language is to have one more window from which to look at the world.”

Chinese Proverb

Intent 

The learning of a foreign language provides a valuable educational, social and cultural experience for the pupils.

As set out in the Curriculum, a high-quality language education should encourage children’s curiosity and deepen their understanding of the world. The teaching should enable pupils 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 learn new ways of thinking.  Language teaching should provide the foundation for learning further languages, equipping pupils to study and work in other countries.

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.

It is intended that when children leave Crow Orchard, they will have a natural curiosity and confidence to explore, other countries, cultures and languages, accepting that, in a multi-lingual society it is a valuable skill to be able to communicate effectively with others in another language.  They will be engaged and prepared to continue language learning at Secondary School.

We have eight key priorities at Crow Orchard Primary School that underpin every subject area. We believe that by focusing on these key priorities our children will be ready to successfully meet the challenges of the next stage of their education and their lives.

Implementation
 

What does it look like?

At Crow Orchard, French lessons are delivered through a language specialist, Madame Walbank.  Lessons provide a variety of sources to model the language, using games and songs to maximise enjoyment and make as many connections to real life situations as possible.

Lessons focus on speaking and listening in LKS2 but increased opportunities to read and write in UKS2

They have clear, achievable objectives and incorporate different learning styles.

All children have access to the curriculum through variation of task, grouping or support from an adult.

Children’s confidence will be built through praise for any contribution they make.

Whole class teaching is used, although pupils also work individually, pairs or in groups (to cater for different learning styles).

Organisation

In Key Stage 2, each class has a timetabled lesson of at least 30 minutes per week and then wherever possible, through the week; e.g. the children may answer the register in French, sing a song or revisit vocabulary and phrases that have been taught in the lesson in order to consolidate knowledge and ensure new language is retained.

In Key Stage 1 children may be taught simple greetings in a variety of languages and also some basic French vocabulary during our annual European Day of Languages.

Pupils are taught how to:

• ask and answer questions;
• sing songs
• use correct pronunciation and grammar;
• memorise words;
• interpret meaning;
• understand basic grammar;
• make use of bi-lingual dictionaries;
• work in pairs and groups and communicate in a foreign language;
• explore things from another’s perspective, giving insight into the people, lives and
• traditions of other cultures.
• IT is used to support the children’s learning.

Impact

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

• Observing children speaking and listening in another language.
• Marking of written work.
• Images and videos of children completing speaking and listening activities (added to SeeSaw File)
• Interviewing the pupils about their learning (pupil voice).
• Learning walks.
• Subject tracking.

The MFL subject leader will continually monitor the impact MFL teaching is having on the children’s learning, through work scrutinies and regular meetings with the specialist language teacher 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.

The MFL Subject Champion is:

Mrs Nicola McVey

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