Click the Links Below to Access MFL Planning and Policies
Rufford Park Primary School French Policy (Updated Summer 2 2022)
Language Angels Website:
French
Mrs Amos is the current French Leader
Intent – What is the purpose of our MFL curriculum?
The intention of Rufford Park’s MFL (Modern Foreign Language) curriculum intends to use the Language Angels scheme of work and resources to ensure we offer a relevant, broad, vibrant and ambitious foreign languages curriculum that will inspire and excite our pupils using a wide variety of topics and themes. All pupils will be expected to achieve their full potential by encouraging high expectations and excellent standards in their foreign language learning - the ultimate aim being that pupils will feel willing and able to continue studying languages beyond key stage 2.
The intent is that all content will be continuously updated and reviewed annually, creating a dynamic programme of study that will be clearly outlined in both long-term and short-term planning. This will ensure that the foreign language knowledge of our pupils progresses within each academic year and is extended year upon year throughout KS2 and, in so doing, will always be relevant and in line with meeting or exceeding national DfE requirements.
The four key language learning skills; listening, speaking, reading and writing will be taught and all necessary grammar will be covered in an age-appropriate way across the primary phase. This will enable pupils to use and apply their learning in a variety of contexts, laying down solid foundations for future language learning and helping the children improve overall attainment in other subject areas. In addition, the children will be taught how to look up and research language they are unsure of and they will have a bank of reference materials to help them with their spoken and written tasks going forward. This bank of reference materials will develop into a reference library to help pupils recall and build on previous knowledge throughout their primary school language learning journey.
The intent is that all pupils will develop a genuine interest and positive curiosity about foreign languages, finding them enjoyable and stimulating. Learning a second language will also offer pupils the opportunity to explore relationships between language and identity, develop a deeper understanding of other cultures and the world around them with a better awareness of self, others and cultural differences. The intention is that they will be working towards becoming life-long language learners.
Implementation – How is our MFL curriculum delivered?
Foundation Stage (Reception) and Key Stage 1 (Years 1 and 2)
Foundation and Key Stage 1 pupils are not required to have formal lessons in French. However, pupils may learn some simple French words or phrases through songs, rhymes and games as necessary and relevant to the topics that they are studying. They also participate in Whole school French-themed days such as Tour de France celebrations and French picnic afternoons.
Years 3 to 6
We begin our French Lessons in Year 3 and continue these until the end of Year 6. Pupils have a one hour lesson every week where they cover a range of topics from family and ourselves to school and hobbies. Rufford Park has a two-year rolling programme for French. 2022-2023 is Year A (Cycle 1). Rufford Park staff have found that ongoing issues from the pandemic mean that our pupils have gaps in their French knowledge and have missed some key learning due to priority being given to other subjects. This means that we have planned our Language Angels French units with Limited Foreign Language Experience in mind, allowing pupils to catch up and embed key concepts and vocabulary. This means that Year 5/6 repeat some key Year 3/4 units such as Fruits, Vegetables and Phonics lessons 1 & 2. We feel that this is the best approach for our pupils and will ultimately give them a firmer grounding in basic topics and beginner language skills. We aim for this to be temporary and hope to review our unit planners in 2023-2024.
All classes will have access to a very high-quality foreign languages curriculum using the Language Angels scheme of work and resources. This will progressively develop pupil skills in foreign languages through regularly taught and well-planned weekly lessons in KS2 which will be taught by class teachers and HLTAs.
Children will progressively acquire, use and apply a growing bank of vocabulary, language skills and grammatical knowledge organised around age-appropriate topics and themes - building blocks of language into more complex, fluent and authentic language.
All teachers will know where every child is at any point in their foreign language learning journey.
The planning of different levels of challenge (as demonstrated in the various Language Angels Teaching Type categories) and which units to teach at each stage of the academic year will be addressed dynamically and will be reviewed in detail annually as units are updated and added to the scheme. Lessons offering appropriate levels of challenge and stretch will be taught at all times to ensure pupils learn effectively, continuously building their knowledge of and enthusiasm for the language(s) they are learning.
Units are progressive within themselves as subsequent lessons within a unit build on the language and knowledge taught in previous lessons. As pupils progress though the lessons in a unit they will build their knowledge and develop the complexity of the language they use. We think of the progression within the 6 lessons in a unit as ‘Language Lego’. We provide blocks of language knowledge and, over the course of a 6-week unit, encourage pupils to build more complex and sophisticated language structures with their blocks of language knowledge.
Pupil learning and progression will be assessed at regular intervals in line with school policy. Teachers will aim to assess each language skill (speaking, listening, reading and writing) twice throughout each scholastic year to be able to provide reference points against which learning and progression in each skill can be demonstrated.
In addition to following the lessons provided in the Language Angels scheme of work and resources, teachers are encouraged to also do some of the following:
- Foreign language celebration assemblies.
- Cookery sessions of traditional foods from the country of the language being studied.
- Fashion shows demonstrating typical / traditional clothing from the country of the language being studied.
- Weather forecasts based on maps from the country of the language being studied.
- School celebrations of national feast days from the country of the language being studied when appropriate to facilitate a whole school approach to foreign language learning along with improved cultural awareness.
Impact – What knowledge and skills are obtained?
As well as each subsequent lesson within a unit being progressive, the teaching type organisation of Language Angels units also directs, drives and guarantees progressive learning and challenge. Units increase in level of challenge, stretch and linguistic and grammatical complexity as pupils move from Early Learning units through Intermediate units and into the most challenging Progressive units. Units in each subsequent level of the teaching type categories require more knowledge and application of skills than the previous teaching type. Activities contain progressively more text (both in English and the foreign language being studied) and lessons will have more content as the children become more confident and ambitious with the foreign language they are learning.
Early Learning units will start at basic noun and article level and will teach pupils how to formulate short phrases. By the time pupils reach Progressive units they will be exposed to much longer text and will be encouraged to formulate their own, more personalised responses based on a much wider bank of vocabulary, linguistic structures and grammatical knowledge. They will be able to create longer pieces of spoken and written language and are encouraged to use a variety of conjunctions, adverbs, adjectives, opinions and justifications.
Pupils will continuously build on their previous knowledge as they progress in their foreign language learning journey through the primary phase. Previous language will be recycled, revised, recalled and consolidated whenever possible and appropriate.
Teachers will have a clear overview of what they are working towards and if they are meeting these criteria. They will use the long-term planning documents provided in the form of Language Angels unit planners to ensure the correct units are being taught to the correct classes at each stage of the scholastic year. Short-term planning is also provided in the form of unit overviews (covering the learning targets for each 6-week unit) and individual lesson plans laying out the learning aims and intentions of each individual lesson within a unit. These planning documents ensure that teachers know what to teach and how to teach it in each lesson, across whole units and across each scholastic term.
By the end of KS2, we would like pupils to achieve national expectations by being able to:
- Confidently speak and write basic and compound sentences in French.
- Use grammatical knowledge to speak and write sentences correctly.
- Be able to have short verbal exchanges and respond using correct intonation and pronunciation.
- Use their language knowledge to interpret or make accurate guesses as to what new phrases or words mean.
- Have an appreciation of differences between British and French traditions and cultures.
- understand how language skills can equip them in further education and in the wider world as global citizens.
Finally (and perhaps most importantly) we want our Rufford Park Learners to be engaged in the experience and the joy of learning another language.
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Useful Websites and Resources
BBC Teach French (with Ben Shires) - a series where Ben Shires learns French phrases with a group of children.
Youtube: BBC Teach 'Virtually There' Series- a explores basic greetings, events, hobbies and pastimes through a TV series.
Crickweb - French games covering numbers, colours, transport and fruit labelling.
BBC Bitesize French - games and mini French lessons to refresh your grammar skills. It also includes some helpful pronunciation videos, songs and activities.
The French Experiment: Numbers - Free french lesson which shows children how to say each number in French and gives some guidance as to how the number patterns change.
The French Experiment: The Weather - Goes through some simple ways to describe the weather.
The French Experiment: Days of the Week
Youtube: French with Alexa- Alexa is a real French Teacher who covers all areas of French from KS2 to A-Level at a range of levels. She's a firm favourite in Lower KS2!
Image: A sample from Crickweb French