Modern Foreign Languages

Intent

At Manor Park Primary Academy, we teach French to all pupils in Key Stage 2. We believe that learning a foreign language provides a valuable educational, social, and cultural experience. Our goal is to expose pupils to a foreign language so they can acquire and embed early vocabulary, knowledge, and skills at an early age. This supports their learning in later stages of education and life. Learning a foreign language also provides a medium for making connections across the curriculum and for reinforcing knowledge, skills, and understanding developed in other subjects.

Implementation

To facilitate the teaching and learning of French, we use the Language Angels online platform as a vehicle for a tailored phonics and lesson approach. This ensures children have a solid understanding of key concepts by the end of Key Stage 2. Our lessons are taught by class teachers and begin in Year 3 with more basic language, progressing to more advanced topics in Year 6.

Our approach uses a variety of techniques to encourage active engagement in lessons. We use a multi-sensory and kinaesthetic approach to reinforce memory, ensuring lessons are entertaining and enjoyable. This helps develop a positive attitude toward learning modern foreign languages. Lessons are carefully adapted to meet the needs of all pupils, and we build children's confidence by offering constant praise for any contribution they make, however tentative.

Pupils are taught to:

• Listen attentively to spoken language and show understanding by joining in and responding.

• Explore the patterns and sounds of language through songs and rhymes, and link the spelling, sound, and meaning of words.

• Engage in conversations, ask and answer questions, express opinions, and respond to those of others.

• Speak in sentences using familiar vocabulary, phrases, and basic language structures.

• Develop accurate pronunciation and intonation.

• Present ideas and information orally to a range of audiences.

• Read carefully and show understanding of words, phrases, and simple writing.

• Appreciate stories, songs, poems, and rhymes in the language.

• Broaden their vocabulary and develop their ability to understand new words.

• Write phrases from memory and adapt them to create new sentences.

• Describe people, places, things, and actions orally and in writing.

• Understand basic grammar and how to write simple sentences.

You can refer to the KS2 Overview and Progression Map for a detailed plan of what is taught each year.

Impact

Our MFL curriculum is high-quality, well-planned, and designed to show progression. We adhere to the LEO Pupil Outcome of ensuring our pupils are Global Citizens who, through their language lessons, develop empathy with other cultures. The impact on pupils' English language development is enhanced through the identification of similarities in vocabulary and differences/similarities in grammar structures.

We monitor the impact of pupils’ progression each term. Formative assessments support teaching and learning and inform future planning. Pupils are summatively assessed against the four key areas: listening and responding, speaking, reading and responding, and writing. This allows us to consider each child’s attainment and progress against expected standards.