MFL

Intent (What is our MFL curriculum)

The national curriculum for Modern Foreign Languages aims to ensure that all pupils:

• Understand and respond to spoken and written language from a variety of authentic sources

• Speak with increasing confidence, fluency and spontaneity, finding ways of communicating what they want to say, including through discussion and asking questions, and continually improving the accuracy of their pronunciation and intonation

• Can write at varying length, for different purposes and audiences, using the variety of grammatical structures that they have learnt

• Discover and develop an appreciation of a range of writing in the language studied

At Haddenham Community Junior School we believe that, in line with our values and ethos, a high-quality MFL curriculum will enrich our children's education. 

At HCJS, we have chosen the Kapow Primary Spanish (condensed) scheme of work, as this scheme supports pupils to meet the National curriculum end of Key stage 2 attainment targets.

Through this scheme we aim to:

• Instil a love of language learning and an awareness of other cultures. 

• Develop the confidence to communicate in Spanish for practical purposes, using both written and spoken Spanish. 

• Give pupils a foundation for language learning that encourages and enables them to apply their skills to other languages, facilitates further language study and opens future opportunities to study and work abroad. 

• Provide pupils with a firm foundation of language learning. 

We have carefully planned and sequenced when to teach the three building blocks of a language system, known as Primary knowledge strands: 

• Phonics. 

• Vocabulary. 

• Grammar. 

Pupils connect these building blocks of knowledge to create meaning in a variety of contexts, allowing them to develop their skills in the following strands: 

• Language comprehension: listening and reading 

• Language production: speaking and writing 

Ample opportunities are provided to ensure that children practise new learning across all four modalities. 

Our National curriculum coverage shows which of our units cover each of the National curriculum attainment targets as well as each of the strands. Our Progression of knowledge, skills and vocabulary shows the knowledge, skills and progressive vocabulary that are taught within each year group and how these develop to ensure that attainment targets are securely met by the end of Key stage 2. 

Implementation (How do we deliver the curriculum?)  

We achieve this by: 

• Teaching Spanish following the KAPOW Condensed scheme of work

• We ensure coverage of the curriculum via progression of skills cross-referenced with the National Curriculum, the school’s curriculum intent and adapted appropriately as detailed in our curriculum mapping and progression of skills documents 

Through our chosen scheme, pupils are given opportunities to communicate for practical purposes around familiar subjects and routines. The scheme provides balanced opportunities for communication in both spoken and written Spanish. Pupils first develop confidence and accuracy with oral skills then increasingly apply their knowledge to extended reading and writing as they progress through Key stage 2.

The chosen scheme is a spiral curriculum, with key skills, grammar and vocabulary revisited with increasing complexity, allowing pupils to revise and build on their previous learning. Cross-curricular links are included throughout our Spanish units, allowing children to make connections and apply their language skills to other areas of their learning.

Lessons incorporate a range of teaching strategies from independent tasks, paired and group work including role-play, language games and language detective work. Our scheme of work focuses on developing what we term ‘language detective skills’ and developing an understanding of Spanish grammar, rather than committing to memory vast amounts of Spanish vocabulary.

Each unit is based on a specific theme with a motivating end outcome which gives the children a context and clear purpose for their learning. Guidance for adapting the learning is available for every lesson to ensure that lessons can be accessed and enjoyed by all. To help pupils retain their Spanish learning, we provide information on incorporating Spanish into the classroom environment every day in our ‘During the week’ sections.

We understand that many teachers do not feel confident delivering the full language curriculum and every effort has been made to ensure they feel supported to deliver lessons of a high standard that ensure pupil progression.

Strong subject knowledge is vital for staff to be able to deliver a highly effective language curriculum. Accordingly, each unit of lessons includes multiple teacher videos to develop subject knowledge and support ongoing CPD. Lessons include sections to explain key grammar and language points to the teacher before the lesson, together with key vocabulary and a pronunciation sound guide. Lesson presentations include sound files, supporting teachers who are less confident with their own pronunciation to deliver the lesson and support the children's learning. In addition, there is also a comprehensive series of phoneme videos to build teachers’ and pupils’ speaking confidence.

Impact  (How do we measure attainment?)

First and foremost we look for happy, confident and successful learners of Spanish who are engaged and excited by languages who can read fluently, write imaginatively, speak confidently and understand Spanish and the cultures of other countries it is spoken in. 

The achievement of ‘secure understanding’ for each year group is evidenced through first-hand observation of how students perform at lesson objective level, drawing on evidence from pupil voice interview, book scrutiny, observations, assessments and curriculum reviews. Together, this bank of information allows teachers to assess the children robustly.

Our chosen scheme can be monitored continuously through both formative and summative assessment. Pupils frequently evaluate their own and their peers’ performance, respond to feedback and recognise their own progress. Every unit has a quiz which can be used at the end of the unit. Each lesson includes guidance to support teachers in assessing pupils against the learning objectives. 

A distance marking sheet is utilised to record children’s progress in each lesson and enable staff to build a picture of their learning through each unit and make informed & knowledgeable termly judgments. 

After the implementation of our curriculum, pupils should leave school equipped with a range of language-learning skills to enable them to study Spanish, or any other language, with confidence at Key stage 3. 

The expected impact of our chosen scheme is that children will be able to: 

• Demonstrate understanding of spoken language by listening and responding appropriately. 

• Speak and read aloud with confidence and accuracy in pronunciation. 

• Apply their understanding of phonics to make increasingly accurate attempts to read unfamiliar words, phrases and short texts. 

• Be able to engage in purposeful dialogue in practical situations (e.g. ordering in a cafe, following directions) and express an opinion. Be able to identify word classes in a sentence and apply grammatical rules they have learnt. 

• Have developed a range of language detective skills to tackle unfamiliar words in Spanish, English and other languages. 

• Use a bilingual dictionary to support their language learning. Be able to construct short texts on familiar topics. 

• Meet the end of Key stage 2 stage expectations outlined in the national curriculum for languages. 

• Develop a greater awareness of the wider world and an appreciation for the role of language learning in promoting cross-cultural understanding