Intent
Our aim for Modern Foreign Languages (MFL) at Eythorne Elvington Primary School is for pupils to learn how to communicate in a different language. Learning a foreign language is a necessary part of being a member of a multi-cultural society and provides an opening to other cultures. A high-quality languages education should foster children’s curiosity and deepen their understanding of the world.
In line with our whole-school curriculum intent, teachers will set high standards pupils to develop a passion for foreign languages through engaging and imaginative sessions. We will bring learning alive through an array of practical, hands-on learning experiences with the children developing all of their language skills of oracy, listening, reading and writing.
As always, our core school values will play a big part in all that do we with Modern Foreign Languages. Children will develop the confidence to speak foreign languages and be brave enough to make errors along the way. They will have ambitions to use the skills and knowledge being taught and use it in life to be able to go on and widen their horizons as to what the future may hold for them not just locally but internationally. Pupils will learn to develop and embrace perseverance as they tackle all obstacles that come with learning a new language. They will be expected to show empathy to others when working with partners or small groups where the ability levels of languages may differ. Finally, they will want to be successful at picking up and using a foreign language – they will demonstrate this through hard work and a determination to succeed.
Implementation
Our Modern Foreign Languages curriculum has been designed to cover all of the skills, knowledge and understanding as set out in the national curriculum. 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.
At Eythorne Elvington, pupils have weekly lessons in French throughout Key Stage Two by a languages specialist. Classes are mixed age- with combinations of year groups from Y3-6.
In EYFS and Key Stage One, children acquire basic skills and understanding of French through the use of daily register to learn some key language.
All learning is planned to ensure there is clear progression and sequencing across Key Stage Two all ensure understanding of knowledge and skills is embedded in the four key areas:
Oracy | Listening | Reading | Writing
As with all subject area, we follow our whole-school teaching approach of:
Review | Teach | Practice | Apply
Sessions start by recapping and reviewing prior knowledge and skills. Key vocabulary and pronunciations are re-visited in order to cement understanding before moving on. The teach elements of each language session is full of modelling and repeating between staff and pupils. Pupils listen attentively to spoken language and show understanding by joining in and responding. They explore the patterns and sounds of language through songs and rhymes and link the spelling, sound and meaning of words
As we move into the practice parts of lessons, pupils will engage in conversations; ask and answer questions; express opinions and respond to those of others; seek clarification and help. They will speak in sentences, using familiar vocabulary, phrases and basic language structures
Pupils will seek to take knowledge and skills and then develop them further through application scenarios. These will including presenting ideas and information orally to a range of audiences; writing phrases from memory adapting them to create sentences to express ideas.
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.
- Interviewing the pupils about their learning (pupil voice).
- Moderation staff meetings where pupil’s work is scrutinised and there is the opportunity for a dialogue between teachers to understand their class’s work.
- Annual reporting of standards across the curriculum to parents.
- 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, 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. Impact will also be measured through key questioning skills built into lessons, child-led assessment such as success criteria grids, jigsaw targets and summative assessments aimed at targeting next steps in learning.