Foreign Languages
Intent
‘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 its speakers, both in speech and in writing.’ (National Curriculum 2014 – Appendix A)
It is our intent at St Patrick’s Catholic Primary School to provide all of our children with a high quality education in Modern Foreign Languages (MFL), which develops their love of learning about other languages and cultures and helps provide them with an understanding of the world. At St Patrick’s Catholic Primary School, we feel that the earlier a child is exposed to a foreign language, the faster the language in question is understood. We believe that the early teaching of French will facilitate the learning of other foreign languages later in life. We hope that all pupils will develop a genuine interest and curiosity about languages, finding them enjoyable and exciting and show a desire to continue their language learning past KS2.
Implementation
Since September 2014, the new National Curriculum has made learning a language compulsory in Key Stage 2. With Primary Languages Network’s team’s history, knowledge, and background, we were impressed with their standards, curriculum, and teaching style. The majority of schools only offer the language that teachers feel most able to cope with, however, with Primary Languages Network, our teachers are able to learn on-the-go, teach interactively, attend CPD events, have the opportunity to practice conversationally and use of DVDs and online resources during class. They also provide the opportunity for staff upskilling and contracting their specialist language teachers to come into school. Primary Languages Network has given our teachers and pupils confidence to speak another language and our teachers to support the children’s language-learning at home.
They use a variety of the following techniques to encourage children to have an active engagement with French:
- Games – in order to develop vocabulary through repetition, reading, writing, speaking and listening skills.
- Action songs and rhymes – to develop phonetic skills, memory skills and to further vocabulary.
- Reading and writing quality materials.
We build children’s confidence through praise for any contribution they make in the foreign language, however tentative.
Impact
Through careful planning and delivery, children will develop a love of languages and a willingness to experiment and learn new languages, developing confidence to speak, ask questions and communicate with others in French. The pupil voice is essential in the MFL curriculum in order to inspire high quality learning and they will understand and respond to spoken and written languages. This will be monitored by the MFL lead through discussions with staff and book scrutinise to ensure all are accessing the learning appropriately and fully.
