Modern Foreign Languages
Modern Foreign Languages
Intent
At Sandbach Primary Academy (SPA), we aim to develop the children’s confidence, skill, excitement and knowledge of another language other than their own. The children of SPA will leave our school being able to confidently respond to spoken and written French, meeting the language requirements of the various aspects of the National Curriculum program of study. At SPA we deliver a curriculum that embeds the skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing necessary to enable children to use and apply their French learning independently in a variety of relevant contexts and lay the foundations for future language learning. We aim for the children to speak French with increasing confident, fluency and spontaneity through discussion and asking questions, constantly working on the accuracy of their pronunciation and intonation. We want our pupils to be able to understand and communicate ideas, both in speech and writing. Our curriculum provides the opportunity for pupils to write at varying lengths, using a variety of sentence structures. We also want the children to relish playing and have fun with language. We want them to be fascinated by the different sounds, contrasting grammatical structures and the myriad of similarities and differences with English. The opportunity to explore French in depth will, in turn, provide the children of SPA with a superior understanding and respect for English grammar and language conventions. In addition to excellent communication skills, we endeavour to instill in the children a deeper cultural awareness through respect for other ways of life as well as language.
Implementation
French lessons are taught in half-termly units from Year 3. Through each unit the children will develop their knowledge of key vocabulary and an understanding of grammatical concepts in French which progress year on year and also encourage them to apply their new knowledge to each theme. French lessons are taught on a weekly basis supported by the language programme, Languagenut. Lessons contain all the familiar vocabulary, phrases and basic language structures that a pupil would require to know before they leave the KS2 stage to move to KS3 and make good progress. During lessons, pupils are encouraged to work on their speaking, reading, writing and listening skills in French. Phonics games allow pupils to improve the accuracy of their pronunciation and intonation, ensuring that is as accurate as it can be so that others understand. Our speaking activities encourage pupils to practise phrases and vocabulary that can be used in all manner of conversations. Many different opinions are expressed in all our topics that allow pupils to express an opinion on all manner of topics. In writing, pupils are taught common grammatical structures and are supported to write longer sentences. Writing activities can range from single words through to phrases and longer sentences. Stories and songs also support the discovery of new words and phrases. To improve pupils’ listening skills, we ensure that audio used is authentic as it is recorded by native speakers.
Impact
By the time pupils leave SPA they will be confident French speakers, ready for the challenges of French at high school. Throughout their language learning there will be the opportunity to assess pupil learning and progression in the key language skills (speaking, listening, reading and writing). This assessment will be ongoing through each half-term using teacher assessment as well as online quizzes and activities with Languagenut, completed through individual user logins. This information will be recorded and will be monitored for impact. For those pupils not progressing in line with age-related expectations, gaps will be identified and any areas that require attention will be embedded into the lesson.