Introduce your child to french with this beautifully animated story.

What we believe for our curriculum (Intent)

At Holbrook Primary School, formal MFL teaching should be fully inclusive for every KS2 child. Our aims are to fulfill the requirements of the National Curriculum for MFL and give the EYFS and KS1 children a confidence in learning a new language to ready them for formal learning in KS2 and foster the pupil’s curiosity and deepen their understanding of the world. Our aim is to develop the confidence and competence of each child in the foreign language they are learning. Our goal is for them to be passionate, curious and confident about their own foreign language learning abilities when they finish the primary school phase of their education.

Pillars of progression

Language exists in spoken and written forms. It is both produced and understood through listening, speaking, reading and writing. We will help our pupils to develop and demonstrate substantial progress along three pillars:

• phonics: the relationship between sounds and spelling
• vocabulary: words, their meaning, and how to use them
• grammar: how words are put together into sentences

Pupils’ knowledge of phonics, vocabulary and grammar must increase step by step with a focus on how they combine so that they can understand and produce ever more complex language. With the teaching of the three pillars in place, pupils will produce and understand more complex and lengthier texts.

We aim to ensure that pupils of all abilities develop solid foundations in these key language learning skills - properly preparing them for the next stage of their language learning journey. These skills will develop children’s ability to understand what they hear and read and enable them to express themselves in speech and writing.

We have chosen to teach French because it’s the language that our teachers have the most expertise in. To complement our learning of French, we will help strengthen pupils’ sense of identity through learning about culture in other countries and comparing it with their own.

How we put our aims into daily practice (implementation)

To ensure high standards of teaching, our approach to language teaching and learning is in line with the recommendations of the National Curriculum and the requirements outlined in the Department for Education Languages Programme of Study for Key Stage 2. It aims to be increasingly demanding and broaden and deepen pupils’ linguistic knowledge.

We implement a curriculum that is progressive throughout Key Stage Two.  Each Key Stage 2 class has a weekly 40 minute lesson following the The Primary French Project planning. Phrases and vocabulary are practised over the week.  In Key Stage One we celebrate a variety of languages and encourage children that speak another language at home to share words and phrases with the class.  In September we celebrate a day of European Languages and aim to create an interest and enthusiasm for learning another language.

Special Educational Needs Disability (SEND) / Pupil Premium / Higher Attainers

Any children with identified SEND or in receipt of pupil premium funding will be given support where needed to access the curriculum dependent upon their needs. As well as this, our school offers a demanding and varied curriculum, providing children with a range of opportunities in order for them to reach their full potential and consistently achieve highly from their starting points.

Below is an example outline of the units we will cover throughout KS2:

We are successful because ... (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 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 in another language
• Marking of written work in
• 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

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.

For more detail on the teaching of MFL, please click on the policy below.