French
Curriculum Intent
Teaching MFL at Mosborough supports the aims of the National Curriculum in order to equip our pupils to -
- understand and respond to spoken and written language they have learnt
- 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
- 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
- gain a better understanding and appreciation of the wider of the world through the study of a different language and culture
We feel that in the increasingly diverse world we live in it is essential that every child throughout KS2 is able to enjoy and study a foreign language and develop a good and deep understanding of the cultures of people who live in our country and throughout the world. We feel this is essential to equip them to be successful in the future.
We have developed a curriculum that is enriched with fun activities and purposeful end products to ensure that children’s interest in languages is maintained and that they are inspired to continue their language journey beyond KS2. We also ensure that pupils are exposed to high quality teaching and learning experiences and that they are able to communicate with native speakers and develop partnerships with schools abroad.
Within the curriculum, opportunities to develop each key skill are clearly planned progressively so that skills are developed each year and by the end of KS2 children can use the skills to become independent language learners and so that vocabulary can be used repeatedly and embedded.
Implementation
At Mosborough, we have designed a high quality curriculum that ensures pupils are able to develop their key skills and knowledge progressively throughout their 4 years of language learning when revisiting and embedding key vocabulary and knowledge. Our approach is highly focused on phonics teaching to ensure our children are able to decode and accurately pronounce the target language and apply these skills to other languages in the future. Children are given opportunities to express their ideas and thoughts in another language and to understand and respond to its speakers, both in speech and in writing.
At Mosborough, in our MFL lessons:
- The core skills for speaking, listening, reading and writing are taught through a range of progressive and engaging topics which also enables them to develop a core vocabulary in the target language
- Skill and vocabulary progression is clear throughout year groups and across the school
- Lessons are carefully planned to ensure that children are exposed to a wide range of language experiences including engaging with native speakers in the target language
- High quality resources are used to meet the needs of all learners including a wide range of literary texts, the use of voice recorders to enable children to evaluate their own speaking skills and ipad apps to help them to present their learning in a variety of ways
- Pupils are taught the phonetic sounds from the target language and are taught how to use this to read and spell in the target language
- Carefully structured lessons enable children to build upon knowledge from previous lessons and revisit core vocabulary regularly to ensure that it becomes embedded
- Whole school projects are carefully planned to raise the profile of languages around the world in school and give children the opportunity to engage in new and exciting experiences
- Children work alongside a partner school in France on collaborative projects
- Children are exposed to other cultures through a range of exciting learning experiences including culture days, celebrations, performances and research projects
- Children receive awards and praise for their achievements and to motivate and acknowledge their effort and engagement.
- Children are constantly exposed to the language through the use of an increasingly dialogic classroom environment.
Pupils are taught to:
- listen attentively to spoken language and show understanding by joining in and responding
- explore the patterns and sounds of language through songs and rhymes and link the spelling, sound and meaning of words
- engage in conversations; ask and answer questions; express opinions and respond to those of others; seek clarification
- speak in sentences, using familiar vocabulary, phrases and basic language structures
- develop accurate pronunciation and intonation so that others understand when they are reading aloud or using familiar words and phrases
- present ideas and information orally
- read carefully and show understanding of words, phrases and simple writing
- appreciate stories, songs, poems and rhymes in the language
- broaden their vocabulary and develop their ability to understand new words that are introduced into familiar written material, including through using a dictionary
- write phrases and adapt these to create new sentences expressing ideas clearly
- describe people, places, things and actions orally and in writing
- understand basic grammar appropriate to the language being studied, including (where relevant): feminine, masculine forms, key features and patterns of the language; how to apply these, for instance, to build sentences; and how these differ from or are similar to English.
Impact
At the end of KS2, children will have had 4 years of consistent, high quality teaching of languages and will have developed skills and a core vocabulary and the confidence to enable them to be successful to achieve the aims of the national curriculum.
Also, as mentioned in the intent, children should leave KS2 with linguistic skills necessary to enable them to effectively learn other languages in preparation for their language journey in Keys Stage 3 and beyond.
Our children also have a deeper understanding of the world and the people who live in it which broadens their horizons, inspires their curiosity, and promotes diversity and tolerance for our ever changing world.
We also feel that due to the exciting and enjoyable experiences the children have, that they also foster a love of languages which they will take with them on their educational journey.
Supporting documents and useful links:
Our MFL Policy can be viewed here
