MFL Intent, Implementation and Impact

Intent

At Hillsborough Primary School, we value Modern Foreign Languages as an important part of the children’s entitlement to a rich and balanced curriculum. We intend to use the Language Angels scheme of work and resources to ensure we offer a relevant, broad and ambitious foreign languages curriculum that will inspire and excite our pupils using a wide variety of topics and themes. All pupils will be expected to achieve their full potential by encouraging high expectations and excellent standards in their foreign language learning - the ultimate aim being that pupils will feel willing and able to continue studying languages beyond key stage 2. We want to ensure that the foreign language knowledge of our pupils progresses within each academic year and is extended year upon year throughout the primary phase and, in so doing, will always be relevant and in line with meeting or exceeding national DfE requirements. 

The four key language learning skills; listening, speaking, reading and writing will be taught and all necessary grammar will be covered in an age-appropriate way across the primary phase. This will enable pupils to use and apply their learning in a variety of contexts, laying down solid foundations for future language learning and also helping the children improve overall attainment in other subject areas.

The intent is that all pupils will develop a genuine interest and positive curiosity about foreign languages, finding them enjoyable and stimulating. Learning a second language will also offer pupils the opportunity to explore relationships between language and identity, develop a deeper understanding of other cultures and the world around them with a better awareness of self, others and cultural differences. The intention is that they will be working towards becoming life-long language learners.

Implementation

Children will progressively acquire, use and apply a growing bank of vocabulary, language skills and grammatical knowledge organised around age-appropriate topics and themes - building blocks of language into more complex, fluent and authentic language.

The planning of different levels of challenge and which units to teach at each stage of the academic year will be addressed dynamically and will be reviewed in detail annually as units are updated and added to the scheme. Lessons offering appropriate levels of challenge and stretch will be taught to ensure pupils learn effectively, continuously building their knowledge of and enthusiasm for Spanish

 Children will be taught how to listen and read longer pieces of text gradually and they will have ample opportunities to speak, listen to, read and write in Spanish with and without scaffolds, frames and varying levels of support.

Children will build on previous knowledge gradually as their foreign language lessons continue to recycle, revise and consolidate previously learnt language whilst building on all four language skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing. Knowledge and awareness of required and appropriate grammar concepts will be taught throughout all units at all levels of challenge.

 Grammar rules and patterns will be taught by level of challenge:
 

• We start with nouns and articles and 1st person singular of high frequency verbs in Early Learning units.
• We move on to the use of the possessive, the concept of adjectives, use of the negative form, conjunctions/connectives and introduce the concept of whole regular verb conjugation in Intermediate units.
• We end with opinions and introduce the concept of whole high frequency irregular verb conjugation in Progressive units. 

The school has a unit planner in place which will serve as an overall ‘teaching map’ outlining for all teachers within the school what each class in each year group will be taught and when it will be taught.

Impact

The impact of MFL is clear when:

- children show curiosity about different languages and cultures and enquiring minds, asking questions about why  words and sentences are structured the way they are, and how this differs from their own language

-children demonstrate an increased cultural awareness, and empathy towards those with beliefs, traditions and languages that differ from their own

- children are able to formulate whole sentences both orally and within their written work. They are ready for the challenges at secondary school level, requiring them to write at greater length within their target language.

- children begin to develop an awareness of spelling patterns within their target language. The impact of MFL is monitored and measured in a variety of ways. Pupils voice shows us that pupils are developing the vocabulary and understand the grammar our modern foreign language, Spanish. Work sampling shows that pupils have had the opportunities for practising the skills of MFL learning.