What is Modern Foreign Languages?

We believe that Modern Foreign Languages  are a necessary part of  being a member of a multi-lingual  society and that they provide valuable skills to be able to communicate effectively with others in another language. 

Through the eyes of our children, a modern foreign language is important because:

‘Learning different languages gives us the chance to share our ideas and thoughts through speaking, reading and writing in another language.’

National Curriculum

Learning a foreign language is a liberation from insularity and provides an opening to other cultures. A high-quality languages education should foster pupils’ curiosity and deepen their understanding of the world. The teaching should enable pupils 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, learn new ways of thinking and read great literature in the original language. Language teaching should provide the foundation for learning further languages, equipping pupils to study and work in other countries.

Teaching may be of any modern or ancient foreign language and should focus on enabling pupils to make substantial progress in one language. The teaching should provide an appropriate balance of spoken and written language and should lay the foundations for further foreign language teaching at key stage 3. It should enable pupils to understand and communicate ideas, facts and feelings in speech and writing, focused on familiar and routine matters, using their knowledge of phonology, grammatical structures and vocabulary.

The focus of study in modern languages will be on practical communication.

Curriculum Intent

At St. Andrew’s Church of England Primary School, we provide our pupils with a high quality Spanish provision in order to foster their curiosity of different cultures from around 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. It should also provide opportunities for them to communicate for practical purposes, learn new ways of thinking and read great literature in the original language. Language teaching should provide the foundation for learning further languages, equipping children to study and work in other countries.

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

• understand and respond to spoken and written language from a variety of authentic source
•  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
• can write at varying length, for different purposes and audiences, using the variety of grammatical structures that they have learnt
• discover and develop an appreciation of a range of writing in the language studied.

Implementation:

The teaching and implementation of the Modern Foreign Languages curriculum at St. Andrew’s C.E. Primary School is based on the National Curriculum and is taught from Year 1 through to Year 6.

Our pupils should be able to organise their knowledge, skills and understanding on the following key concepts:

· Read fluently

· Write imaginatively

· Speak confidently

· Understand the culture of the countries in which the language is spoken

Pupils reinforce and build upon prior learning, make connections and develop subject specific language. 

Our Modern Foreign Language curriculum is designed to develop not only our children’s language skills, but also their love of learning a language. It progressively develops language skills, through regularly taught lessons. This allows the children to acquire new language then use and apply it in a range of different scenarios and topics. Children are encouraged and supported to develop their speaking and listening skills through conversational work, singing activities and games. As their confidence and skill grows, children record their work through pictures, captions and sentences. We aim to ensure that, when appropriate, Spanish is integrated into other areas of the curriculum and the basic skills are taught throughout the year through cross curricular work.

At St. Andrew’s, we are dedicated to the teaching and delivery of a high-quality Modern Foreign Language Curriculum through well planned and resourced projects and experiences. We have determined that Spanish will taught in bespoke units across the school year. During Spanish units, our children may draw upon subject knowledge and skills from across the breadth of the curriculum.

Impact

Through the explicit teaching of the Language skills, teachers and the children assess their learning continuously throughout the lesson. Bespoke tests are produced by our Spanish specialist in KS2 to monitor attainment and assess where there are gaps in the children’s learning. At the end of each school year, children are assessed to be working below, at or above the national expectation.