Intent
The intent of our Meadowside Modern Foreign Languages Curriculum is that children are:
· encouraged to develop a curiosity about language.
· developing their awareness of cultural differences in other countries.
We try to embed the skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing skills necessary to enable children to use and apply their French learning in a variety of contexts and lay the foundations for future language learning. Whilst learning French is our focus, we also focus on how language learning skills are transferrable, and they can be used to help access a new language.
For each subject, we use an aspirational Golden Thread statement that is important to our school vision and values at Meadowside. We have considered how each subject can help the children in their journey to secondary school and beyond.
Our Meadowside Golden Thread for MFL is:
To Make links between languages and develop transferable language skills.
Modern Foreign Languages National Curriculum
Implementation
Our MFL curriculum is designed to progressively develop children skills in French, through regular taught lessons. Children progressively acquire, use and apply a growing bank of vocabulary organised around stand alone topics. Children are encouraged and supported to develop their speaking and listening skills through conversational work, singing activities and games. As confidence and skill grows, children record their work through pictures, captions and sentences. All our children in KS2 will have regular French lessons. The main focus for children’s learning in the topics taught is the acquisition of the key vocabulary and developing speaking and listening skills. We use the Twinkl language scheme and other online resources to support our planning. As we acknowledge children’s different learning styles, our children learn through active participation in actions, rhymes, stories, song, grammar focus, video clips, sentence structure, dictionary work and many more creative ways to extend, embed and combine language skills. Formative assessment is implemented throughout a topic with mini-plenaries and speaking skills/ understanding of what they hear being checked.
Additionally, each year, children learn songs in French to perform during the KS2 Christmas production for parents and the community. In previous years we have also run MFL days and French days where children experience a wide variety of activities, including playing games, food tasting and singing.
KS1 children will be introduced to MFL through exploring other languages informally when appropriate.
Impact
Meadowside’s MFL curriculum is designed to foster a love of learning languages and children are encouraged to understand the relevance of what they are learning in and how it relates to everyday life and travel. Teachers foster an enjoyment of languages through a variety of lessons including interactive, singing and outdoor lessons. Progression through a topic should be evident in the development of key skills and acquisition of vocabulary. Children should leave Meadowside with some knowledge of how their language learning skills are transferable to other languages.
The children are assessed throughout the year by their class teacher, based on the work being produced in class. Three times a year, the MFL subject leader will hold a pupil voice session to moderate the assessment judgements made by the class teacher. This gives our subject leader the chance to see strengths and areas for development in the teaching and learning of MFL at Meadowside.
How can I support my child with MFL
Encourage your child to share their learning with you. This will help them to become more comfortable with using the language and build their confidence.
You can also provide them with opportunities to listening skills. Try setting aside some time for French conversation or listening to French-language books and music, videos and TV shows. There are plenty available for free on Youtube.
Exposing your child to French culture can also be helpful. If you have the opportunity, take your child on a trip to France or another Francophone country. This will give them a chance to hear the language spoken in its natural environment and perhaps pick up some new vocabulary.
Useful websites
