Intent

Our aim for Modern Foreign Languages (MFL) at Petham Primary School is to introduce the learning of the French language and the understanding of its culture. We believe that learning a foreign language is a necessary part of a child’s education for living in a multi-cultural society. We lay the foundations of the future language learning in an enjoyable and exciting way to foster the children’s curiosity and deepening their understanding of a culture different to their own.

In line with our whole-school curriculum intent, our passionate staff who foster a love of learning embed the essential skills of listening, reading, speaking and writing. We build upon the children’s ‘cultural capital’ so they are aware of similarities and differences between cultures. We have high expectation of all children and help them to progressively develop skills by building on previous knowledge learnt.

Our school core values are interwoven through the Modern Foreign Languages curriculum. By teaching the children the skills of listening and speaking we are encouraging them to communicate with others and share their own opinions. Learning a new language takes a high level of resilience and initiative which is encourage during our lessons with plenty if peer talk, sharing ideas, helping others and embracing new challenges. Children are given the opportunity to organise their own learning as well as others’, where they are given opportunities to build their leadership skills.  

Implementation

Our Modern Foreign Languages curriculum has been designed to cover a wide variety or skills, knowledge and understanding as set out in the national curriculum for our KS2 classes. The national curriculum states that “A high-quality languages education should foster pupils’ curiosity and deepen their understanding of the world”. We ensure our lessons are engaging and hands-on through the use of puppets, songs, stories and rhymes.

To support our understanding and delivery of French we follow the Kapow Scheme of Learning which breaks down the curriculum into a further six strands which weave throughout our lessons. These are Speaking and pronunciation, Listening, Reading and Writing, Grammar, Intercultural understanding and Language detective skills.

Throughout the year we cover each of these strands in turn, reviewing our prior knowledge and establishing prior links. Children are given the opportunities to communicate for practical purposes and have a balanced opportunity in both spoken and written French. The children start by focusing on oral skills before incorporating written French into their learning.

Impact 

At Petham Primary School, our MFL lessons are planned to be progressive and engaging which ensures our pupils are able to apply the skills they have learnt, retain key learning and show confidence in their learning. Our pupils learning activities and pupil voice are recorded in our class floor books after each lesson to evidence new skills and vocabulary that have been taught. The children’s learning is able measured through end of unit assessments, teacher questioning built into lessons and work scrutiny and lesson observations carried out by the subject lead. We encourage our children to use their new language learning in practical ways to demonstrate their understanding. 

French Cafe 

Owls and Woodpeckers had a great time putting their French conversational skills into practise at our French Cafe. They ordered their own food in French and enjoyed sampling croissants, baguettes, brioche, crepes and hot chocolate which they paid for in euros and cents. 

The children dressed up with a French theme and the outfits so all so amazing and creative - well done to you all!