Foreign Languages
"If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his own language, that goes to his heart."
Nelson Mandela
Foreign Languages Curriculum Statement
Foreign Languages Curriculum Overview
Foreign Languages (FL)
Curriculum Intent
At Churchill CE Primary school, the FL curriculum aims to make the learning of French a worthwhile and enjoyable experience and to prepare pupils for today’s global village by helping them to develop language-learning skills. We want pupils to believe in themselves and strive to be the best version of themselves in order to succeed in further language study and use in school.
We aim to develop resilience, confidence, self-belief and children’s love of learning about other languages and cultures by focusing on the four key skills of language (reading, speaking, writing and listening). We have chosen to use the Primary French Project resources (Niveau Bleu, Niveau Blanc, Niveau Rouge and Niveau Tricolore) to underpin our FL curriculum so that it is accessible to pupils and shows a clear progression through KS2 and beyond, creating a solid base of knowledge to aid the transition from primary to the secondary curriculum.
In line with the 2014 National Curriculum for Foreign Languages, Churchill CE Primary aims to ensure that all children:
- 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; seek clarification and help.
- Speak in sentences, using familiar vocabulary, phrases and basic language structures.
- Develop accurate pronunciation and intonation so that others understand when they are reading aloud or using familiar words and phrases.
- 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 that are introduced into familiar written material, including through using a dictionary.
- Write phrases from memory, and adapt these to create new sentences, to express ideas clearly.
- Describe people, places, things and actions orally and in writing.
- Understand basic grammar appropriate to the language being studied.
With kind hearts, resilience, guidance and support our aim is to develop a generation of children who leave primary education believing that they can be successful linguists.
Curriculum Implementation
Weekly 15 minute lessons of French are taught in Year 3 – Year 6. In our programme of study, Niveau Bleu/Blanc/Rouge/Tricolore, teachers follow the sequence of lessons using an interactive PowerPoint each lesson. The PowerPoints cover new vocabulary, practise of the four key skills (reading, listening, speaking and writing), pronunciation, knowledge about language (grammar) and a cultural aspect. Each term, children are given the opportunity to learn French songs, a French finger rhyme and to read a French story.
Over the next twelve months we will be developing our curriculum provision through capturing evidence of writing in their cross curricular books (sentences, worksheets, drawings, captions) and capturing evidence of speaking by videoing children’s work using iPads. These books move with pupils from year 3 to year 6 so that previous learning is accessible to all. Pupils will continuously build on their previous knowledge as they progress in their foreign language learning journey through Churchill CE Primary School.
A typical lesson is likely to include many of the following elements:
- Opportunity to actively participate
- Opportunity to practise the 4 key skills (speaking, listening, reading and writing)
- Children working as a class, individually, in pairs or in a small group
- Revisit prior learning
- Opportunity to practise pronunciation
- Knowledge about language by learning about grammar points
- Opportunity to explore a cultural aspect related to the language
Curriculum Impact
We are developing the scope of our assessments and over the next year will be extending our evaluation of pupils’ listening and speaking skills, to include reading and writing of French.
We measure the impact of our curriculum through pupil voice to gauge pupils’ enjoyment of learning French.
The FL Subject Leader monitors the effectiveness of the language teaching provided throughout the year to ensure the progress of knowledge and skills are being taught. As we continue to develop our provision our subject leader will work with class teachers to promote strategies to 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.