Skip to content ↓

St Paul's Catholic
Primary School

MFL

Intent for the Curriculum in MFL 

‘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…. Language teaching should provide the foundation for learning further languages, equipping pupils to study and work in other countries’ (National Curriculum) 

The skills, knowledge and understanding gained through learning a language contribute to the development of children’s oracy and literacy and to their understanding of their own culture and those of others. At St Paul’s Catholic Primary, we feel that the earlier a child is exposed to a foreign language, the faster the language in question is acquired. We believe that the early acquisition of French will facilitate the learning of other foreign languages later in life. We will prepare children for the KS3 language curriculum to enable them to transfer confidently and successfully.  

Our cultural diversity is very important at St Paul’s. We showcase this through our successful International Day where each of our children is able to share food and culture from their own heritage. We also have a day where the Year 6 children run a French café for their peers showing what they have learnt during their studies of French in KS2 and promoting the importance of MFL in our community.  

CATHOLIC SOCIAL TEACHING 

Modern Foreign Languages enables us to explore other cultures, helping develop their understanding of different beliefs and values. Through the medium of French, we also discuss subjects such as global issues, religious festivals and cultural differences.  We also ensure that each child knows that their beliefs and values are important through our whole school International Day where children are actively encouraged to showcase their diversity and culture.  

 

 

SEND 

We aim to provide lessons where all children are able to assess the MFL curriculum but where needed lessons will be adapted for the needs of SEND children. This may mean a change in assessment method or smaller targets to suit their needs so as not to demotivate. A variety of resources will be used and developed accordingly.  Partner and group work is used to help encourage the SEND children to feel part of the class whilst being given subtler support. 

ORACY 

Oracy is a key part of the French curriculum, the children use oracy in many different ways for example role-plays, rote repetition, conversation and listening work.  Children are encouraged to use their oracy skills to further develop their understanding of French and its culture. Oracy listening skills are promoted during vocabulary acquisition and class presentations.  

 

Implementation  

 

We teach French across Key Stage 2. The school uses the Rising Stars scheme of work to support the teaching and learning of French. We further consolidate this learning through resources from Twinkl, BBC Bitesize, CGP and other reputable education sites. This provides clear progression for the development of speaking and listening and vocabulary acquisition.  

 They use a variety of the following techniques to encourage ‘a love of language’ in the children. We do this through a variety of methods:  

 

 

 

 

  • Games – in order to develop vocabulary through repetition, reading, writing, speaking and listening skills. 

  • Role-play – these should relate to the situations the children may find themselves in the future. 

  • Grammar: developing an understanding of the basic grammatical structure in French and building on them through their MFL journey. 

  • Action songs and rhymes – to develop phonetic skills, memory skills and to further vocabulary. 

  • Reading and writing quality materials. 

  • We build children’s confidence through praise for any contribution they make in the foreign language, however tentative. 

 

We ensure that all aspects of the National Curriculum standards are covered. The children are also assessed at the end of each term to check their understanding and to determine where we need to provide further support in weaker areas.   

 

Impact 

Through the high quality first teaching of French taking place we will see the impact of the subject in the following ways: 

  • Children will become aware that a language has a structure, and that the structure differs from one language to another. 

  • Children will develop their language and communication through development of the four key skills of speaking, listening, reading and writing. 

  • Children will enrich their language learning by developing an understanding of the French culture. 

  • Children will transfer to KS3 effectively and successfully and will be well prepared to continue and develop their language skills.