Howick Church of England Primary School

Modern Foreign Languages

 

Intent

Learning a foreign language is a necessary part of being a member of a multi-cultural society and provides an opening to other cultures. At Howick we believe that a high-quality languages education will 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, learn new ways of thinking and read great literature in the original language. Language teaching should provide the foundation for learning further languages both in secondary school and beyond.

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.

At Howick CE Primary School:

Children have weekly lessons in French throughout Key Stage 2, using the resources and units of work from KAPOW French, in addition to other resources. 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.

It is intended that when children leave Howick, 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.

 Implementation

We teach French across Key Stage 2. The school uses the KAPOW scheme of work alongside other carefully chosen resources to support teaching and learning. This provides clear progression for the development of speaking and listening and vocabulary acquisition.  

We use a variety of techniques to encourage children to have an active engagement with French.  These include:

• Games – in order to develop vocabulary through repetition, reading, writing, speaking and listening skills.
• Role-play – these should relate to the situations the children may find themselves in the future.
• Action songs and rhymes – to develop phonetic skills, memory skills and to further vocabulary.
• Reading and writing quality materials. 

The KAPOW scheme is based on the 2014 National Curriculum and is altered to meet the needs of our children. This provides teachers with clear progression grids and content for teaching and learning.    We follow a two-year rolling programme across KS2, with Cycle A and Cycle B units taught alternatively. This enables teachers to confidently deliver a mixed-age French scheme aligned with the National curriculum. Progression is broken down into the following key areas:

• Phonics – becoming familiar with key French phonemes, spelling and pronunciation.
• Vocabulary – introducing commonly-used words; memorising high-frequency keywords.
• Grammar – systematically learning French grammar and applying it in a variety of contexts; practising grammar structures in speaking, writing, reading and listening activities.
• Language comprehension (listening and reading) – applying knowledge of phonics, vocabulary and grammar; decoding what the children hear and read more accurately and efficiently using a range of strategies.
• Language production (speaking and writing) – applying what the children have learnt across other knowledge strands to speak and write in French.
• Cultural awareness – learning about French food, celebrations, festivals, art and French-speaking countries around the world.

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.

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 and summative assessments aimed at targeting next steps in learning.