“Learning a foreign language is a liberation from insularity and provides an opening to other cultures. A high-quality languages education should foster children’ curiosity and deepen their understanding of the world.” Department for Education. 2013

Learning a second language offers the chance to explore relationships between language and identity, develop a deeper understanding of another culture and improve overall attainment.

Intent of our Modern Foreign Languages Education Provision

At Whitehouse Community Primary School, where 35% of children already speak two languages, we believe that learning any additional language is full of rich opportunities. The MFL curriculum at Whitehouse Community Primary School is designed to improve our children’ competence in understanding and speaking French but equally it is focussed on developing our children as learners, giving them a wider cultural awareness and broadening their learning experiences. We believe this approach will develop our children’ knowledge and skills, enable them to access the wider curriculum and prepare them to be a global citizen, now and in their future.  Our intent is for our children to develop a practical knowledge of French, enabling them to express their thoughts and ideas through interactive lessons.  We will provide many chances for children to communicate for practical purposes and we aim to give our children opportunities to gain knowledge about the language as well as the culture and traditions of France. 

Implementation of our Modern Foreign Languages Education Provision

To ensure high standards of teaching and learning of French at Whitehouse Community Primary School we implement a curriculum that shows a progression of skills throughout Key Stage 2.  In our lessons, our main focus is on practical communication.  We follow a spiral curriculum, therefore topics have been carefully selected to enable children to revisit key vocabulary every year before scaffolding new knowledge. This avoids cognitive overload.

In order to have an inclusive and accessible learning environment we support children with a range of different needs and abilities through scaffolded lessons and our three step learning objectives and challenges. This gives every child the opportunity to succeed and develop a responsible and reflective attitude towards their learning.  Lessons are delivered through a broad range of interactive games, songs and activities that stimulate and encourage children of all abilities to explore and participate with a focus on practical application for speaking in a range of real-life scenarios that enable children to demonstrate practical application of their language skills.  As confidence and skill grows, children record their work through pictures, captions and sentences.  Additionally, we offer ‘French for the Family’ in Year 4, which is where parents are invited in to school to spend time with their children, eat a little French food and experience what a French lesson is like.

Impact of our Modern Foreign Languages Education Provision

Our aim is to ensure children recognise the relevance of learning a second language for their future and to encourage our children to continue to pursue an enjoyment of foreign language learning as they move into a secondary school setting. 

• Children learn to recognise French vocabulary and are able to write in French which gives them a positive starting point to learning languages in the future.
• Children gain a better understanding of other cultures and the wider world thus increasing their cultural capital outside of their local community. This helps children to broaden their global understanding and links with our Right Respecting School status.
• All children can take part in MFL lessons, including EAL children, from a level starting point. Oral lessons allow all children to engage and achieve success, which increase motivation and confidence.
• Learning another language helps children understand and have empathy for those children in our school who are learning English as an additional language, supporting our inclusive and supportive school atmosphere.
• Teacher assessment are used to track progress and attainment. Assessments are recorded and monitored on classroom monitor and analysed through pupil-progress meetings termly.