Modern Foreign Languages
Intent
It is our intent at Tushingham Primary School to provide our children with a high-quality education in French, our chosen Modern Foreign Language (MFL), which inspires pupils to develop a love of learning about other languages and cultures and helps provide them with an understanding of the wider world. We aim to build the children’s ‘cultural capital’ so that they have a knowledge and understanding of the richness and diversity between cultures. All pupils at Tushingham will be expected to achieve their full potential in their foreign language learning with the aim of making them feel confident engaging in spoken French and develop skills in reading, listening, and writing French. We hope that all pupils will develop a genuine interest and curiosity about languages, finding them enjoyable and exciting and show a desire to continue their language learning past Key Stage two. We believe that learning another language gives children a new and broader perspective on the world, encouraging them to understand their own cultures and those of others, which feeds into our whole school values and ethos. We aim to help children grow into curious, confident and reflective language learners and to provide them with a foundation that will equip them for further language studies.
Implementation
French is taught throughout key stage two on a weekly basis. Teachers follow a sequence of carefully planned lessons which ensure coverage of the skills required by the national curriculum, including speaking, listening, reading and writing. The sequence enables children to build on prior learning alongside the introduction of new skills. Previously taught language will be revised, recalled and consolidated whenever possible and appropriate. Ample opportunities are provided for the children to practice speaking French to one another and the teacher. Through their lesson they also have opportunities to listen to native French speakers. Evidence of lessons taught are captured in children’s French books with either photos, drawings, sentences, captions, worksheets or games. These books move with pupils from year 3 to year 6 so that previous learning is accessible to all. A linear curriculum has been chosen to allow opportunity for children to gradually build on their skills. In Lower Key Stage two, 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 Key Stage two, alongside Reading and Writing, gradually progressing onto more complex language concepts and greater learner autonomy.
Impact
Our MFL curriculum will ensure all pupils develop key language learning skills set out by the national curriculum, as well as a love of languages and learning about other cultures.
These are as follows:
- Pupils will be able to understand and communicate ideas, facts and feelings in speech and writing.
- Pupils will be able to understand and respond to spoken and written language
- Pupils will speak with increasing confidence and fluency, 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
- Pupils can write at varying length, using the variety of grammatical structures that they have learnt
By the end of key stage two, pupils will have made substantial progress in the French language providing them with a foundation for learning further languages at key stage three.
