MFL Curriculum

Intent

At Whitburn Village Primary school, we believe that learning a foreign language is an important part of the curriculum, allowing access to a wider world and providing an opening to other cultures. The experience of learning and using a foreign language makes its unique contribution to the whole curriculum by taking children out of their familiar environment, which is pervaded by English and allowing them to explore the life-style and culture of another land through the medium of its language. This in turn provides a satisfying, enjoyable and intellectually challenging experience for children in coping with a different linguistic medium.

As well as developing language skills, it promotes social interaction and fosters sympathetic attitudes towards a culture and people of a foreign country by adjusting different social conventions. Such attitudes help to promote goodwill and counter insularity and prejudice. Opportunities are promoted through children developing their skills of communication by listening, speaking, reading and writing. The study of language involves practise of observational and study skills and committing to memory useful information for quick recall. The use of role-play can also develop creativity and imaginative expertise as well as empathy and understanding.

Implementation

At Whitburn Village Primary School, we use the Language Angels scheme of work for the teaching of MFL, which is in line with the National Curriculum expectations. Our chosen language is French and this is taught across the whole school.

KS1

In EYFS and years 1 and 2 the children learn French through, songs, stories, games and the introduction of simple daily vocabulary. There are no timetabled lessons, this learning is all incidental and helps foster a love of languages and develop an interest in French ready for KS2.

KS2

Each class receives at least 1 hour of French each week, which is timetabled.

Units of work provided in the Language Angels scheme are taught across KS2 and are adapted to meet the needs of our children. Lessons are sequenced to ensure progression and can include:

Direct teaching, through whole-class and small group sessions
Active learning to engage motivation
Use of games, songs, stories and other activities requiring a physical response to maximise enjoyment and retention of information
Opportunities for pupils to apply their learning, either on their own e.g. reading or writing independently, or with others e.g. working in small groups or in pairs
Opportunities for pupils to reflect on and reinforce their own learning e.g. learning things by heart or revising work
Successful strategies used in English lessons should be adopted in MFL lessons
Successful strategies from Maths lessons should also be adopted in MFL lessons and the use of manipulatives such as; dice, number fans, digit cards etc…
There should be lots of active learning and the use of games, songs, dance, rhymes, storytelling and role-play should be encouraged.

Planning

Long term

The units for each year group are organised in the form of yearly overviews. This ensures a balanced workload for teaching in each year group as well as there are no duplication or omission of units.

Short term

Each unit is divided into a series of detailed individual lesson plans which include objectives, vocabulary lists, classroom organisation, differentiation and assessment opportunities. All resources needed, including worksheets, flashcards, songs and audio files are included within the scheme and available on an online portal to enable easy access for all staff.

Impact

It is the responsibility of all staff, both teaching and non-teaching to monitor and evaluate the curriculum provision made for MFL teaching within school. This ensures that all children have access to the languages curriculum, make the greatest possible progress and enjoy their language learning experience whilst working towards their intended end points. Evaluation is undertaken by MFL subject lead who report to the SLT and governors.

The monitoring and evaluating by the subject lead includes the regular reviewing of the coverage of the programmes of study. Resources are monitored and reviewed to allow different teaching and learning opportunities. The delivery of languages is evaluated through monitoring of lessons, books scrutinies, assessments and pupil voice.

Evaluation is conducted according to the monitoring and assessment cycles within the school development plan. A yearly report will be produced for the governors by the subject lead.