Modern Foreign Languages
Intent
Our goal is to equip every pupil at Overleigh St. Mary’s to be informed, articulate and empowered through the teaching of MFL.
Acquiring proficiency in a foreign language is a crucial modern-life skill, offering a gateway to exploring diverse cultures and fostering a deeper global comprehension. All children, including those with SEND or disadvantaged groups, fully access the MFL curriculum. This may include additional adult support, adapted work outcomes or structured sentence stems and taught vocabulary scaffolds to support children in using language in discussion.
Informed
- Children engage in learning French, enhancing both their vocabulary and language skills. They broaden their understanding of French-speaking cultures.
Articulate
- Teaching of French, primarily emphasizes oral communication, guiding children to converse, describe, and learn songs and rhymes. They progressively expand their vocabulary, becoming confident at naming, describing, and responding to questions. Children master accurate pronunciation and intonation.
Empowered
- Mastering another language empowers children to navigate a globalized world, with French chosen for its widespread global usage. Exploring the traditions and beliefs of different cultures fosters an ethos of acceptance and respect for diversity. All students, including those with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) or Pupil Premium, receive support to fully engage with the French curriculum. This support may involve additional adult assistance, customized resources, or the use of visual aids.
Implementation
We implement our curriculum using planning that prioritises knowledge and understanding of the French language.
Our French curriculum provides a clear and comprehensive scheme of work that will ensure progression of skills across Key Stage 2 within the strands of French. The skills and knowledge that children will develop throughout each French topic are mapped across each year group and are progressive throughout Key Stage 2. The emphasis on knowledge ensures that children understand the language that has been taught through reading, writing, speaking and listening as well as giving opportunities for intercultural understanding. This enables the children to develop their learning from previous years as they progress up until Year 6. All children, including those with SEND and other vulnerable groups, will have access to the full breadth of the MFL curriculum with work being adapted through the adaption of scaffolds, vocabulary support and expected work outcomes, made by the class teacher.
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Year group |
French topics covered |
|
Year 3 |
Autumn Numbers 0-10 Greetings, asking and saying how you are Classroom instructions Ask for and give name Spring Revision of numbers 0-10 Ask for and state age Colours Names of Fruit and Food items Summer Days of the week Months of the year |
|
Year 4 |
Autumn Revision of colours from Y3 Parts of the body (with adjectives) Revision of asking for French translation (Comment dit-on… en français? ) Zoo animals (including verb etre and adjectives) Alphabet (vowels)
Spring Song- Meunier tu dors Family– asking questions about family Story- Le radis géant Pets
Summer Dictionary skills Hobbies– opinions on hobbies, Do you like etc Numbers 12-31 Weather– il fait chaud etc Clothes
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Year 5 |
Autumn Areas in town, directions and asking where places are Days of the week Times of the day Spring Revision days of the week Hobbies Months of the year Numbers 0-50 Fruit and food Summer Breakfast– and ingredients for French deserts Weather Seasons Where you live.
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Year 6 |
Autumn Classroom routine Clothes Family members être and “As tu…?” Spring Houses (and adjectives) Prepositions Asking questions Summer Days of the week and months Hotels (where will you be staying?) Modes of transport |
Impact
Our Foreign Language Curriculum is high quality, well thought out and is planned to ensure progression. Our teachers measure the impact of our curriculum through the following methods:
- A knowledge check at the beginning of each unit to see what the children already know
- Start lessons with a recap of key knowledge and understanding from the previous session
- Provide opportunities each lesson to use the previously taught vocabulary
- Assess children at the end of the unit on how well they have learnt the new vocabulary
The leadership team check that this impact is being secured through monitoring the subject on a regular and frequent basis. The method of monitoring supports the ongoing development of the curriculum. This includes:
- Staff subject knowledge, which is audited each year to ensure knowledge is secure, and additional support provided if necessary
- Termly staff meetings to discuss and evaluate the effectiveness of topics with the subject leaders. From this, medium term planning is amended and adapted to ensure the curriculum remains relevant for the children
- A ‘pupil voice’, which is conducted at the beginning and end of each year to allow pupils to contribute to their curriculum content
- Bi-termly monitoring of work against the medium-term plans, so that strengths can be identified and inconsistencies can be addressed
- Tracking of content against the long-term plan of the school, to ensure the full breadth of the curriculum is met.
The impact of this is to ensure that children at Overleigh are equipped with linguistic skills and knowledge, which will enable them to be ready for the curriculum at Key Stage 3 and for life as an adult in the wider world.
Children in Key Stage 2 have a French book that is passed on to the next year group at the end of the year to show the child’s progression. The book contains evidence of the skills the child has learnt that year.