"With languages you are at home anywhere."
Edmund de Waal
Intent
The intent of our Modern Foreign Languages curriculum aims to enable our pupils to be health aware and ecologically aware to become global citizens of the future. In Modern Foreign Language, this can be seen by the way we introduce languages in KS1 by exposing children to different countries, so that they can learn about cultures, traditions and the language used within that country. Every classrooms door has a welcome sign displayed in different languages. Dual language books are placed in rooms of children who have English as a second language. KS2 lessons are planned to enthuse and encourage both written and spoken language. We aim to give our children a lifelong love of languages. Lessons are fun, interactive and involve a variety of speaking and listening activities. In Upper KS2 more reading and writing activities are introduced to reflect the skills of the students. Songs are sung, games are played, and everyone is able to feel success at different points in the lesson. The aim is to build pupil confidence, so that they are prepared to continue their language learning in high school. The cultural aspects of each language is also studied so that pupils can recognise ways that they differ from their own, this also helps to raise their global awareness.
Implementation
We celebrate MFL annually with a French day, which is used for children to pair up across key phases, so that older children in KS2 can share their knowledge of the French language to teach and prepare younger children in KS1. Evidence of the impact of this is in our children's books, our e-portfolios, displays and the children's own opinions of their learning (pupil voice).
By the end of their language journey at West Kirby Primary School children will...
- Speak with increasing confidence, fluency and spontaneity, finding ways of communicating what they want to say, including through discussion and asking questions, and continually improving the accuracy of their pronunciation and intonation
- Listen to native speakers and recognise familiar expressions
- Read, discover and develop an appreciation of a range of writing in the language studied.
- Be able to write at varying length, for different purposes and audiences, using the variety of grammatical structures that they have learnt.
Impact
The impact of this is that our children move on to their various secondary schools with an enthusiasm for language learning. They will have confidence in their ability to learn a language and will have gained an insight into cultures across our world.
MFL Subject Leader: Ms Ashley