Intent

At Greenacres, the intention of our MFL curriculum is to develop an interest in and thirst for learning other languages. We aim to introduce the learning of the French language and the understanding of its culture in enjoyable and stimulating ways. We hope to embed the essential skills of listening, reading, speaking and writing. We aim to build the children’s ‘culture capital’ so that they are aware of similarities and differences between cultures. In short, we hope to lay the foundations for future language learning.

Implementation

Greenacres are members of Primary Languages Network and follow their robust and ambitious scheme of work to deliver language provision.

The scheme is continually updated and revised to meet with current curriculum standards. Alongside the planning provided, the scheme is supported by accompanying videos, PowerPoints, audio files (spoken by native speakers) links to authentic literature, songs, games, cultural points of reference, seasonal specials and cross-curricular links, all with a ‘primary’ focus.

Year 3 work through Stage 1 of language learning. Years 4, 5 and 6 work through Stages 2, 3, and 4 respectively. However, due to mixed year groups we will alter our curriculum offer if children need to re-visit prior learning before moving on. To promote an active love of languages, a range of teaching methods are implemented to ensure that the children are developing their linguistic skills through listening, speaking, reading and writing to be secondary ready.

Activities consist of actions, rhymes, stories, song, drama, grammar focus, video clips, air writing, sentence structure, dictionary work, book making and many more creative ways to extend, embed and combine language skills. Written work is kept in workbooks although formal writing is not the outcome of every lesson.

Impact

Our French curriculum is planned to demonstrate progression both in core skills and language learning skills.

Formative assessment happens during lessons in order to evaluate what the children have learned and provide real-time feedback to improve further. Errors are corrected and growth mindset is encouragement for all to ‘have a go’ and learn from any mistakes. Pupils self-assess each learning objective using PLN’s self-assessment cloud documents.

There are inbuilt opportunities to carry out summative assessment three times during the year in listening, speaking, reading and writing in order for teachers to track progress.

The outcomes of these assessments allow staff to identify any of the core skills which still need developing and any areas of content which need further reinforcement. By the end of KS2, we aim for pupils to have a curiosity for languages and to be developing into global citizens of the future.