Curriculum – MFL

The national curriculum for languages aims to ensure that all pupils:

  • understand and respond to spoken and written language from a variety of authentic sources
  • 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
  • can write at varying length, for different purposes and audiences, using the variety of grammatical structures that they have learnt
  • discover and develop an appreciation of a range of writing in the language studied.

MFL – curriculum 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 inwriting.’ (National Curriculum 2014 – Appendix A)

Learning a language enriches the curriculum, helping to create enthusiastic learners and to develop positive attitudes to language learning throughout life. The skills, knowledge and understanding gained contribute to the development of children’s oracy and literacy and to their understanding of their own culture and those of others. At North Park Primary School, we feel that the earlier a child is exposed to a foreign language, the faster the language in question is acquired. At North Park we study French; we believe that the early acquisition of French will also facilitate the learning of other foreign languages later in life. We aim to prepare children for the KS3 language curriculum to enable them to transfer confidently and successfully to the next phase of their education.

We teach French across Key Stage 2. The school has adapted plans from the “Kapow Primary” scheme of work to support teaching and learning across the Key Stage. These resources can be accessed by specialist and non-specialist teachers alike. Plans provide clear progression for the development of speaking and listening and vocabulary acquisition.

The national curriculum for languages aims to ensure that all pupils:

    High quality resources have been sourced to support the teaching and learning opportunities for pupils. We use a variety of the following techniques to encourage children to have an active engagement with the teaching of language:

    • Games – in order to develop vocabulary through repetition, reading, writing, speaking and listening skills.
    • Role-play – these should relate to the situations the children may find themselves in the future.
    • 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. Links to other cultures are made in a variety of lessons, and in-school events (e.g. Zulu visit, Durham Brass Festival) as well as in multi-cultural week; this gives pupils wider opportunities to understand that a rich variety of languages spoken around the world. French is introduced to pupils in Year 2 at North Park as part of multi-cultural week studies; this allows pupils to begin to build upon their early experiences of this culture as they move into Year 3.

    For 2021-2022 some adjustments have been made to medium term plans in light of missed learning as a result of Covid 19.

    MFL planning overview

    Our medium term plans detail the content taught in each year group, and in each term.

    Modern Foreign Language – French – Medium Term Plan

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