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

Utilising Chris Quigley's Essentials Curriculum at  HCJS aims to ensure that all pupils :

• Develop confidence to speak with good intonation and pronunciation.

• Fluency in reading.

• Fluency and imagination in writing.

• A strong awareness of the culture of the countries where the language is spoken.

• A passion for languages and a commitment to the subject.

• The ability to use language creatively and spontaneously.

• An independence in their studies and the ability to draw upon a wide range of resources.

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. 

Languages foster children’s curiosity and thirst for knowledge. The teaching of MFL enables children to express their ideas and thoughts in another language and to understand and respond in both the spoken and written language. It also provides exciting opportunities for them to use the language for practical purposes and to rise to the challenge that this presents. We believe that learning a new language helps children develop confidence and resilience as well as adding a depth and breadth to the whole school curriculum.

The learning of languages provides a valuable educational, social and cultural experience for all children, regardless of ability. Children develop communication and literacy skills that lay the foundation for future language learning.  

Learning languages raises awareness of the multilingual and multicultural world and introduces an international dimension to the children’s learning thus giving them an insight into their own culture and those of others. It ensures diversity though deepening their understanding of the world and widening their horizons.

The learning of Spanish provides a medium for cross-curricular links and the reinforcement of the knowledge, skills and understanding developed in other subjects.

Implementation (How do we deliver the curriculum?)

We achieve this by: 

• Teaching Spanish following the “Hola Español!” 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 

• Creating everyday opportunities for children in all year groups to use their Spanish knowledge, such as answering the register, holding short conversations, ordering their lunch or listening to classroom instructions 

• Practising Spanish phonics and grammar during languages lessons 

• Providing links to languages resources for children to further their languages learning, in Spanish and other languages, to provide further enrichment to their learning 

• Creating active and enjoyable Spanish lessons and avoiding passive approaches to language learning 

• Creating activities which scale appropriately across all levels of language skill

• Creating activities which have purpose that is clear and relevant to the learners 

• Enriching lessons by utilising; songs, games, Hola Español topic books, Hola Español story books, roleplays, practical activities and daily routines. 

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 progression of skills and knowledge in MfL over KS2 are measured against descriptors in the Quigley Essentials curriculum (taken from the National Curriculum). These milestones, or ‘small steps’, measure a child’s progress against a scale that will lead, by Year 6, to the threshold statement that aligns with the expectations of the National Curriculum.

The achievement of Expected level 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 and informatively at 4 key assessment points that we call threshold concepts. 

These are threshold concepts in each year group are:

• to Read fluently

• to Write imaginatively

• to Speak confidently

• to Understand the culture of the countries in which the language is spoken