MFL
To learn a language is to have one more window from which to look at the world.
Chinese Proverb
Intent
At Christ Church CE Primary, our intention is to offer a relevant, broad, vibrant and ambitious foreign languages curriculum that will inspire and excite our pupils using a wide variety learning strategies and give them a firm foundation for language learning. All pupils will be expected to achieve their full potential by encouraging high expectations and excellent standards in their foreign language learning. All pupils will develop skills alongside developing a genuine interest and positive curiosity about foreign languages, finding them enjoyable and stimulating.
Learning a second language will also offers pupils the opportunity to widen horizons, explore relationships between language and identity and develop a deeper understanding of other cultures and the world around them with a better awareness of self, others and cultural differences. The intention is that they will be working towards becoming life-long language learners and getting ready for life as local, national and global citizens.
At Christ Church CE Primary we aim to ensure our MFL curriculum is accessible to all, maximising the development of every child’s ability. Our whole school vision for developing our learners’ vocabulary is taken a step further with our MFL curriculum, as children learn whole new vocabularies for discussing topics in another language and use this to gain greater understanding of their own native language in terms of word meanings, subtleties and grammatical structure.
Implementation
At Christ Church, we believe that MFL is an important life skill that enables our learners to develop into effective communicators in an increasingly global-centered world and prepares them for life as local, national and global citizens. To ensure high standards of teaching and learning in MFL, we implement a curriculum that is progressive throughout the whole school using the very high-quality foreign languages curriculum created by Primary Languages Network. This scheme of work enables children to receive the highest quality experience by providing lots of support for teachers delivering languages and access to native speaker videos so children are hearing accurate representations of the French spoken word.
MFL is delivered every other week through quality first teaching as a discrete subject while also being taught through additional learning opportunities such as theme days and weeks or additional classroom speaking opportunities such as answering the register. The delivered curriculum (scheme of work) reflects the needs of our pupils and is tailored to meet these needs.
Children will progressively acquire, use and apply a growing bank of vocabulary, language skills and grammatical knowledge organised around age-appropriate topics and themes - building blocks of language into more complex, fluent and authentic language. As a school we believe John Sweller’s theory on Cognitive Load is central to developing learning and understanding and that in languages, children draw on working memory and long term memory. Our language curriculum is designed to minimise extraneous load and optimise intrinsic load through short and frequent repetition and practice of knowledge already taught so that children build language learning up cyclically.
Pupil learning and progression will be assessed at regular intervals in line with school policy. Teachers will aim to assess each language skill (speaking, listening, reading and writing) twice throughout each scholastic year to be able to provide reference points against which learning and progression in each skill can be demonstrated.
Opportunities for cultural awareness and a deep knowledge of France as a country will also be developed.
Impact
At Christ Church, we enable the children to leave our school as confident linguists who are able to use the key skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing in French to live successfully as local, national and global citizens. MFL teaching will provide children with knowledge, skills and cultural capital that they need to ensure a smooth transition to language learning in the next stage of their education when they progress to secondary school and to develop into responsible, respectful and resilient global citizens.
Assessment is undertaken both at the end of each unit of learning and throughout the units, this feeds forward into both future units and into their learning in subsequent years. Pupil voice is used throughout the year to evaluate both children’s progress in MFL, their enthusiasm for the subject across school, the understanding of taught concepts and pupils’ ability to talk about MFL. The introduction of the Junior Leadership Team this year has really given an extra dimension to subject leaders. They support Leaders in monitoring and improving subject areas through the curriculum.
MFL learning is evidenced through the extent to which pupils understand and utilise subject specific vocabulary. In lessons, pupils demonstrate their ability to use new vocabulary through a wide range of reading, writing, listening and speaking activities. In addition, BLIPPIT is used to showcase displays, learning, conversations and SEND support.
Additional Information and Resources
Please click on the links below to learn more about our MFL Curriculum:
