Intent for KS1 to KS4
At Iceni Primary Academy, we want our children and their families to develop positive attitudes towards other languages and cultures. We believe that learning a Modern Foreign Language will open doors to our children’s futures, equipping them with a life-long practical skill and increasing their love of language learning.
Our MFL curriculum aims at encouraging and challenging our pupils to use and understand another language, by equipping them with the skills and knowledge they need to succeed and feel successful. We strive to inspire the richness and diversity of different countries and cultures in order to develop curiosity and promote diversity and tolerance of other cultures.
At Iceni Primary Academy, we will provide them with the foundations of the spoken and written French language, which they will build on at the Iceni Secondary Academy.
Through the teaching of French, we aim to broaden the pupils’ knowledge and understanding of French culture. The initial focus will be on speaking, listening, stories and practical games and activities, which will lead into reading and writing. This encourages a deeper level of engagement and enjoyment for all pupils, whilst strengthening their communication skills.
Within KS1, we aim for our children to develop an appreciation of songs and stories in French throughout their time at the school. This includes answering the register and taking part in whole academy initiatives such as ‘A Day in France’.
By the end of Key Stage 1 children will be able to:
- Copy basic greetings modelled by my teacher.
- Recognise that there are different languages spoken around the world
- Copy basic sentences modelled by my teacher.
- Respond appropriately to everyday classroom instructions given in French
- Read aloud some basic French words.
- Know that French is a language in a country called France
In KS2, children are taught in weekly sessions with class teachers where they learn conversational French:
- greetings
- numbers
- asking and answering questions about themselves including
- name
- age
- family members
- likes and dislikes.
- They also learn to read and write sentences.
- Children will become familiar with French culture looking at celebrations like Christmas, Easter and Bastille Day.
By the end of Key Stage 2 children will be able to:
- Respond appropriately to simple every day greetings and questions.
- Ask basic questions
- Read and make a phonetically plausible attempt at writing numbers to 20.
- Read and make a phonetically plausible attempt at writing basic colours in French.
- Join several short spoken sentences together to make a short oral presentation about myself.
- Give and respond to simple instructions regarding directions in French.
- Read the day and date written in French.
- Make phonetically plausible attempts at writing the full date using French words.
At Iceni Secondary Academy, our Modern Languages curriculum will give pupils the opportunity to:
- use language skills for communication in the real world, for practical purposes, for their immediate needs, interests and beyond and to express and justify opinions
- develop their confidence and autonomy to access new and unfamiliar language through the use of decoding skills brought about by the explicit teaching of phonics and sound patterns
- work towards becoming a fluent and spontaneous speaker of the foreign language
French, German and Mandarin are taught at KS3, these languages are taught to boost student’s prospect for success and provide them with an insight into three varied languages and cultures.
In year 8 students continue with 2 of these languages until they make their KS4 option choices and are then encouraged to choose one of these languages to continue at GCSE.
As well as students gaining a GCSE qualification in one language, we intend for all pupils to be inspired by the language(s) they learn and see the benefits that learning a language can bring them to help them be even more successful in the future.
We intend for KS3 students to gain a broader understanding of the languages they are learning and to be able to respond to written and spoken language.
By the end of KS3 they are able to:
- give opinions and develop these with reasons across a variety of topics.
- write short paragraphs on familiar topics.
- recognise and use tenses to refer to different time phrases.
- manipulate a variety of key grammatical structures.
The main topics taught across all three languages are as follows:
- Me and my family,
- Free time activities,
- School,
- Food, ordering food in a cafe,
- The area you live in.
As well as learning the language, we provide the students with an understanding of the culture of the country where the language is spoken. This is achieved by raising their awareness of different festivals celebrated in the countries, food and drink eaten, listening to songs in the target language and discussion around of famous people from these countries.
At KS4 students develop the four skills further: listening, reading, writing and speaking.
By the end of KS4 students should be able to:
- understand and use language across a range of contexts.
- express thoughts and ideas with increased confidence, spontaneity and fluency.
- have a deeper knowledge about how language works and be a more independent learner.
- use language for a variety of purposes.
- initiate and develop conversations and discussions.
- use a variety of vocabulary and grammatical structures, including complex structures.
- describe and narrate using events with reference to the past, present and future tense.
- translate sentences and short texts from English into the target language.
The content taught builds on the knowledge gained at KS3 and is organised across these three AQA GCSE themes:
- Theme 1 Identity and culture
- Theme 2 Local, national and international and global areas of interest.
- Theme 3 Current and future study and employment.
They will develop their ability to communicate confidently and deepen their knowledge of how the language works.
As well as learning the language, we provide the students with an understanding of the culture of the country where the language is spoken. This is achieved by raising their awareness of different festivals celebrated in the countries where the language is taught, particularly whilst studying the topic Customs and Festivals from Theme 1. Through the different topics, we discuss food and drink eaten, listen to songs in the target language and discuss famous people from these countries.
Oak’s Wonder Wednesday: a DT food preparation and topic-linked Spanish Tapas tasting session in order to create a list of sensory vocabulary. Food was delicious!
