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MFL

Learning a foreign language is a necessary part of being a member of a multi-cultural society and provides an opening to other cultures. A high-quality languages education should foster children’s curiosity and deepen their understanding of the world. The teaching 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. 

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

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 Hemington Primary School: Whilst the primary focus is French, opportunities to include both other European and global languages are incorporated throughout the year with children taking part in European Languages Day, examples include learning traditional carols from other languages and celebrating Chinese New Year.

Children have weekly lessons in French in class 2. Class 3 participate in French emersion days in the Autumn and Spring term then move onto weekly lessons in the Summer term. French is delivered by a language specialist primary teacher and the scheme of work is supplemented by the highly acclaimed Language Angels programme. This provides clear progression for the development of speaking and listening and vocabulary acquisition. There is a two-year topic plan for class 2 to allow new children entering KS2 to acquire the basic language whilst extending the year 4 existing knowledge.  Within class three topics are taught on a two-year cycle rotation.

In line with the National Curriculum for MFL, pupils at Hemington Primary school 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, stories and rhymes and link the spelling, sound and meaning of words.
• All pupils are encouraged to engage in conversations; ask and answer questions; express opinions and respond to those of others; seek clarification and help.
• Pupils are taught to 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.
• A supportive classroom environment encourages pupils to present ideas and information orally to a range of audiences.
• Pupils read carefully and show understanding of words, phrases and simple writing.
• Pupils appreciate stories, songs, poems and rhymes in the language.
• Pupils are supported to broaden their vocabulary and develop their ability to understand new words that are introduced into familiar written material, including through using a dictionary.
• Pupils develop the ability to write phrases from memory, and adapt these to create new sentences, to express ideas clearly.
• Pupils learn to describe people, places, things and actions orally and in writing
• Pupils develop an understanding of basic grammar appropriate to the language being studied, including (where relevant): feminine, masculine and neuter forms and the conjugation of high-frequency verbs; key features and patterns of the language; how to apply these, for instance, to build sentences; and how these differ from or are similar to English.

Impact

By the end of Year 6, pupils develop a functional understanding of French at the appropriate level and can communicate effectively. Our pupils are confident and enthusiastic learners, who are willing to read, write and speak in a foreign language and feel confident enough to speak in front of a range of audiences.