Shaw-cum-Donnington C.E. Primary

At Shaw-cum-Donnington we recognise the importance of learning a modern foreign language and the positive impact this can have on every aspect of daily life.  We believe that learning a modern foreign language is inclusive and fosters 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 and respectfully with others.  It also deepens understanding of the world and our place in it.

Through our MLF programme of study, we encourage the children to:

Meet the requirements of The National Curriculum, which states that ‘learning a foreign language is a liberation form insularity and provides an opening to other cultures. A high quality languages education should foster pupils’ curiosity and deepen their understanding of the world. The teaching should enable pupils to express their ideas and thoughts in another language and to understand and respond to speakers, both in speech and in writing.  It should also provide opportunities for them to communicate for practical purposes, learn new ways of thinking.  Language teaching should provide the foundation for learning further languages, equipping pupils to study and work in other countries.’

• Understand and respond to spoken and written language from a variety of authentic sources.
• Speak with confidence, fluency and spontaneity.
• Find ways to communicate what they want to say through discussion and asking questions.
• Continually improving the accuracy of their pronunciation and intonation.
• Write at varying length, for different purposes and audiences, using the variety of grammatical structures.
• Discover and develop an appreciation of a range of writing in the language studied.

Subject Content

According to the National Curriculum children will be taught the following:

• 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.
• 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 unfamiliar words and phrases.
• 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.
• Write phrases from memory, and adapt these to create new sentences to express ideas clearly.
• Describe people, places, things and actions orally and in writing.
• Understand basic grammar and where appropriate identify key features and patterns of the language, how to apply these to build sentences, how these different from or are similar to English.

We acknowledge that our teaching staff may not have specialist language teaching skills and knowledge. We teach French in Key Stage 2.  We use the Twinkl scheme, which allows non specialist teachers to provide quality French lessons, whilst allowing those with more prior knowledge to develop their lessons further.  In each year group, children will study Modern Foreign Languages and cover all aspects of the primary national curriculum. 

We use a variety of techniques to encourage children to have an active engagement in French, including:

• Multi-sensory elements to reinforce memory and engagemen.
• Making the lessons entertaining and enjoyable, to develop a positive attitude to the learning of foreign languages.
• Catering for those working at all abilities but will also be challenging to help raise expectations

Our two-year cycle, which has been carefully constructed for our children, along with the program of study overview can be found at the end of this document.

By the time children leave our school, they will have 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 and respectfully with others in another language.

At Shaw-cum-Donnington we:

Assess - Assessment is conducted according to the objectives. Teachers informally identify who meets the objectives. This information informs planning, is passed on to subsequent teachers and collated by the French subject leader.  This will help gain an understanding of pupils’ achievements and where further teaching might be required.

Monitor - The French subject leader undertakes the following to ensure French is effectively taught and what can be done to improve in the future:

• Reviewing assessment information
• Monitoring assessment procedures
• Learning walks to see learning of French

• Feeding back to the Head Teacher and Governors
• Pupil Interviews
• French work scrutiny, where appropriate.