Modern Foreign Languages
Intent, Implementation and Impact of our MFL curriculum
At King Edward we believe learning a foreign language is a necessary part of being a member of a multi-cultural society and provides an opening to other cultures. At King Edward we believe a high-quality language education should foster children’s curiosity and deepen their understanding of the world.
Intent
We aim to introduce the learning of the French language and the understanding of its culture in enjoyable and stimulating ways. We hope to embed the essential skills of listening, reading, speaking and writing whilst building the children’s ‘culture capital’ so that they are aware of similarities and differences between cultures. In short, we hope to lay the foundations for a successful future of language learning. The teaching of French at King Edward should enable children to express their ideas and thoughts in another language and to understand and respond to its speakers, both in speech and in writing. It should also provide opportunities for them to communicate for practical purposes. understand and respond to spoken and written language from a variety of authentic sources.
The National Curriculum of languages aims to ensure children:
1. Understand and respond to spoken and written language from a variety of authentic sources
2. 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
3. Can write at varying length, for different purposes and audiences, using the variety of grammatical structures that they have learnt
4. Discover and develop an appreciation of a range of writing in the language studied.
Implementation
At King Edward our MFL curriculum has been designed to progressively develop skills in French. We are currently using the Kapow scheme of work to plan and deliver our French lessons. These ensure children acquire a bank of vocabulary organized around topics. They ensure development is progressive as they build on previous knowledge from units already studied.
All children in KS2 are taught French in a weekly discreet lesson for 30 minutes. This is delivered by the class teacher.
KS1 children are introduced to MFL through exploring other languages informally when studying other countries.
We are also focusing on French outside the classroom. Songs will be learnt in French during whole school assemblies and signs around the school will also be displayed to make language learning more meaningful and give it a purpose.
Impact
We measure the impact of our curriculum through the following methods:
o Observing children speaking and listening in another language.
o Marking of written work.
o Images and videos of children completing speaking and listening activities.
o Interviewing the pupils about their learning (pupil voice).
o Moderation staff meetings where pupil’s work is scrutinised and there is the opportunity for a dialogue between teachers to understand their class’s work.
o Annual reporting of standards across the curriculum to parents.
o Learning walks.
o Subject tracking.
The MFL subject leader will continually monitor the impact MFL teaching is having on the children’s learning, through work scrutinies, to ensure the progress of knowledge and skills is being taught. They will also ensure the knowledge taught is retained by the children and continually revisited and that the learners are able to apply the skills they have been taught to a variety of different settings, showing independence with their learning. Impact will also be measured through key questioning skills built into lessons and child-led assessment.
