Modern Foreign Languages
Our pupils in EYFS and KS1 do not receive any formal language tuition. However, they are given opportunities to learn about other cultures and languages through our ‘Language of the Week’ celebration. Through this, they are given the opportunity to exchange simple greetings and learn other key phrases in the relevant language. Throughout their time at Bignold, our children are introduced to the idea of languages themselves – that not everybody will speak the same language that they do, that there are cultural as well as language differences and that travel and understanding of these differences can enhance lives.
Pupils begin learning French as a Modern Foreign Language (MFL) in KS2, participating in 30 minutes of teaching a week. By participating only in French lessons, rather than being exposed to a range of modern foreign languages, our pupils gain the necessary breadth and depth of learning to read, speak and write in French. Most lessons are taught by our class teachers, however, our year 3 pupils receive teaching from a specialist, native language speaker.
Each unit is planned using the following structure. We place greater focus on reading, oracy and laying strong linguistic foundations. This is because pupils need to hear, see and say whole, correctly spelt words frequently before they are asked to apply these to written tasks. As pupils become more confident with curriculum content, the flexible content week is used to further develop pupils’ written French.
Our MFL curriculum is purposefully built around the principles of evidence-led practice. Core areas of study are revisited throughout the curriculum to support mastery of key knowledge, and each unit focuses on phonics, grammatical structures, reading, writing, oracy and vocabulary. All of our lessons begin with a recap of key vocabulary to support retrieval. Each child has a French vocabulary book which moves with them as they progress through the school. In this way, key vocabulary can easily be retrieved. We use our MFL lessons as an opportunity to teach pupils about French customs, traditions and heritage, including those that are both similar or different to pupils’ own experiences of life in Modern Britain. We celebrate as a school the French language with a ‘French day’.
We use the CUSP Scheme of Learning to support our planning and resourcing for all children, including those with SEND and from disadvantaged backgrounds. We have high ambitions for all our children; we scaffold learning when needed so that all children achieve well in Modern Foreign Languages and can fully participate in all areas of the whole school curriculum.