Modern Foreign Languages (French)

At Windmill Hill Academy, we inspire pupils to be passionate lifelong learners by providing them with an ambitious broad and balanced curriculum, with the inclusion of a variety of enrichments, which will inspire them to have high aspirations. We inspire all learners to have strong desire to know or learn something and questioning their learning experiences to find out more. Throughout each year group and across the curriculum, pupils will make sustained progress, develop excellent knowledge, understanding and skills, regardless of their different starting points and backgrounds.
Overall curriculum
An Daras Multi Academy Trust has used the latest pedagogy, research and understanding of local contextual needs to structure the curriculum design to ensure the growth of capability mature children who exhibit a sustained curiosity for learning. The ‘lived values and experiences’ of pupils are determined by the individual school and should run through all operational elements of curriculum provision.
 
At Windmill Hill Academy, we believe that the learning of a language provides an invaluable cultural, educational and social experience for our pupils. It enables them to develop essential communication skills in reading, writing, speaking and listening in another language. We are also laying the foundations for the children to develop their knowledge of how languages work which will support them when learning other languages in the future in their secondary education. Our main feeder secondary school teaches French. We believe that by learning another language, children develop a broader perspective on the world which encourages them to better understand their own culture and other cultures of the world.
 
Our main emphasis is on building confidence so that children are not afraid to have a go at communicating in French. It is important that children progress through the skills required by the National Curriculum, not just learn basic vocabulary, it is an expectation that they should be reading and writing simple sentences by Year 6. 
 
Pedagogy
Our MFL (French) curriculum focuses on developing our pupils through the acquisition of WISDOM, KNOWLEDGE, and SKILLS. These have been selected because they ensure the whole development of the child will be prioritised, they enable pupils to meet the expectations of the National Curriculum 4 and have ambitions beyond the NC14. Each theme has a set of curriculum tools which ensure it is fully embedded through the lived experiences of staff, children, and stakeholders. Impact scales will measure the effectiveness of curriculum provision on the growth of children within these three equally important themes.
 
Our MFL (French) curriculum is designed to progressively develop children’s skills in languages through weekly lessons. Children develop their love of language learning and acquire, use and apply a growing bank of vocabulary organised around topics.
 
Our school follows the Rigolo scheme of work, adapted to meet the needs of our children. As all children learn at different speeds and have different learning styles, we try to make French lessons as active as possible with carefully chosen songs and activities supplementing the Rigolo scheme. 
 

Wisdom

Children’s wisdom is developed in the following ways:

- using class discussions to explore another country’s culture

- through learning how to make contributions to topics under discussion – similarities and differences, culturally.

- teaching focuses on enabling children to make language connections and links in order to prepare for further language learning.

 

Knowledge

Children’s knowledge is built through:

- developing the vocabulary for both spoken and written language

- exploring the country’s context and focusing on familiar and routine matters

- developing and understanding of phonology, grammatical structures and vocabulary 

- discovering and developing an appreciation of a range of writing in the language studied with a specific focus of learning about significant aspects of the culture of the countries where this language is spoken.

 

Capabilities

Children’s capabilities are developed through:

- understanding and responding to spoken and written language from a variety of authentic resources

- speaking with increasing confidence, fluency and spontaneity, finding ways of communicating what they want to say, including through discussion and asking questions and continually improving accuracy in pronunciation and intonation

- writing at varying length for different purposes and audiences, using the variety of grammatical structures that they have learnt.  

 

Assessment

Assessment is regarded as an integral part of teaching and learning and is a continuous process. There are planned opportunities within the curriculum plan to revisit learning from the current year but also previous year groups.

The Rigolo scheme provides assessment points throughout the year - after every unit taught. They focus on each of the four main skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing.

 

Formative

Assessment is regarded as an integral part of teaching and learning and is a continuous process. All sessions should begin with a recap/recall of previous learning. Teachers should use skillful questioning to gauge starting points, to assess current understanding and knowledge, to ensure concepts have been acquired, to identify misconceptions. This formative assessment should support the teacher in adapting lessons to ensure pupils are learning new learning, building on prior learning, and making links between new and previous learning. At the end of each session, teachers should use assessment tools to ensure that the intent of the lesson has been achieved, to help plan for the following session and to support building a picture of the pupils’ progress for final summative assessments. It is the responsibility of the class teacher to assess all pupils in their class, this will be triangulated with marking, TA feedback and pupil self-assessment. Any misconceptions are addressed with immediacy and the impact of targeted teaching reviewed.

 

Summative

It is the responsibility of the class teacher to assess all pupils in their class. Each child is assessed termly, against the NC criteria and recorded annually on iTrack. Pupils produce an outcome to demonstrate their unit learning. At the end of a whole unit of work, the teacher makes a summary judgement about the work produced. Teaching staff are provided with a skill assessment sheet which, when completed, indicates the children who have met, have not met or have exceeded age-related expectations for that historical focus. We pass this information on to the next teacher at the end of the year. Reports to parents are given via parent meetings and pupils’ attainment is reported via an annual report.

 

It is the responsibility of the class teacher to assess all pupils in their class. This is mainly achieved through mini-plenaries, questioning, observation, end of unit tasks, marking, feedback from support staff and pupil self-assessment. 

The monitoring of the standards of children’s learning and the quality of learning and teaching of MFL is the shared responsibility of the Senior Leadership Team and the subject leader. The work of the subject leader also involves supporting colleagues in the teaching of MFL, being informed about current developments in the subject, and providing a strategic lead and direction for the subject in the school. A named member of the school governing body is briefed to overview the teaching of the curriculum in the school.

 
When assessing pupils with SEND, there will be carefully planned opportunities in order for them to demonstrate what they know and are able to do, using alternative means where necessary. Where a pupil is unable to use particular types of equipment, assessment of attainment will be based on understanding of the processes used as demonstrated through oral and written responses or, where possible, through the use of alternative equipment. 
 
 
Culture
MFL is an important contributor to the Trust ambition to develop the whole child through the acquisition of wisdom, knowledge, and skills.
 
At Windmill Hill Academy, we believe that the learning of a language provides an invaluable cultural, educational and social experience for our pupils. It enables them to develop essential communication skills in reading, writing, speaking and listening in another language. Our main emphasis is on building confidence so that children are not afraid to have a go at communicating in French.
 
It is important that children progress through the skills required by the National Curriculum, not just learn basic vocabulary, it is an expectation that they should be reading and writing simple sentences by Year 6. Learning another language presents opportunities for the reinforcement of knowledge, skills and understanding developed in other curriculum areas. Specifically, we link the language learning to global understanding, cultural respect, inclusion as well as the ‘life skills’ of our capabilities curriculum – communication/self-esteem, collaboration.
 
Teachers will help pupils with SEND to overcome any barriers to participating and learning and make any ‘reasonable adjustments’ needed to include pupils. To make lessons inclusive, teachers will anticipate what barriers to taking part and learning may pose for pupils with SEND. Some modifications or adjustments will be made or smaller steps to achieve the learning goal. Occasionally, pupils with SEND will have to work on different activities, or towards different learning intentions, from their peers.
 
For some activities, there may need to be a ‘parallel’ activity for pupils with SEND, so that they can work towards the same learning intentions as their peers, but in a different way. The use of technology to assist learning can removes barrier e.g. Widget, switches, text readers and speech and communicator devices. Screen filters may help with glare or using coloured backgrounds e.g. yellow background with blue script for dyslexic learners. Because the range of hardware and software is wide and continually expanding, teachers will always seek to collaborate with the SENDCo or colleagues e.g. previous teacher, on removing barriers to learning and participation for particular pupils with SEND. Pupils will also be able to advise on the technologies that suit them best.

 

Systems

Our French curriculum ensures that all pupils in Key Stage Two develop the key skills as set out in the national curriculum, as well as develop a love of languages and an appreciation of other cultures.

The National Curriculum aims are 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.  

 

Policies/key documents

- Capabilities Strategic Design Framework#

- Whole School Long term horizontal curriculum map

- ADMAT Trust Skills Progression Map for MFL – French

- Knowledge and Skills organiser for French

- Rigalo Scheme of Learning

- Rigalo Assessments

- SEND Policy

 

All of these can be found on our website under the curriculum/policies tab.