Cowley Hill
Foreign Languages - French
Cowley Hill Foreign Languages Curriculum Statement
Curriculum Intent:
Learning a foreign language is part of the primary National Curriculum and is a requirement for all children within Key Stage 2. Our goal is for children to be passionate, curious and confident about their own foreign language learning abilities when they finish the primary school phase of their education. Learning another language presents opportunities to be part of an ever-growing multi-lingual society, and to develop a lifelong understanding of other countries and their cultures. It can inform understanding of their own language and its development and influence throughout the world. These skills lead to an appreciation of the many similarities between languages and cultures.
Aims
As they develop confidence and competence in the language they are learning, we aim to ensure that children of all abilities gain a solid foundation in the five key language learning skills necessary for learning the target language, properly preparing them for the next stage of their learning journey.
These are:
- Speaking
- Listening
- Reading
- Writing
- Grammar
These skills will develop children’s ability to understand what they hear and read and enable them to express themselves in speech and writing. We aim to extend their knowledge of how language works and explore the similarities and differences between the target language and English. We aim to help strengthen their sense of identity through learning about culture in other countries and comparing it with their own.
We aim to equip pupils with cultural capital, preparing children with the essential multi-lingual knowledge and skills for what comes next. The exploration of new skills and experiences helps to nurture resilience, curiosity and creativity. Through this journey, children develop new forms of cultural capital that makes a difference in individual mind-sets, which consequently shapes their future.
Curriculum Implementation:
The Cowley Hill School approach to language teaching and learning is in line with the recommendations of the National Curriculum and the requirements outlined in the Department for Education Languages Programme of Study for Key Stage 2. At Cowley Hill, French is taught in KS2 in a whole-class setting by the class teacher and is therefore not reliant on one key member of staff to deliver French across the school.
Teachers plan their lessons using a school-wide scheme of work and can supplement this with their own ideas and experience and those of their colleagues. The scheme is a fully online, cross-curricular resource enabling all teachers in all classes to have instant and continuous access to all the resources they need to teach whichever lesson they choose. It is regularly updated to reflect new topics in the national curriculum.
The lessons are designed to engage and motivate children. They have clear, achievable objectives and incorporate different learning styles; visual, auditory and kinaesthetic. Language teaching at Cowley Hill is inclusive: children of all abilities have access to the complete language lesson followed by appropriate differentiation, through variation of task, grouping or support from an adult. This allows each individual child to experience success and build self-esteem.
French lessons may include:
- PowerPoints and interactive whiteboard materials
- Interactive games (to which children may have access from home to consolidate their learning)
- Songs & raps
- Differentiated desk-based consolidation activities to support each teaching unit.
- Partner/group work to encourage communication, repetition and embedding of the language and grammar.
Each lesson will focus on a combination of the five key language learning skills (speaking, listening, reading, writing and grammar). Grammar may be taught in isolation but is usually embedded in lessons so that it can be used in, and transferred to, a variety of contexts.
Curriculum Impact:
Through learning French at Cowley Hill, children will develop the skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing with increasing confidence, fluency and spontaneity. demonstrating their use of the three pillars of language learning:
· Phonics: This enables children to develop accurate pronunciation and intonation so that others understand when they are reading aloud or using familiar words and phrases
· Vocabulary: Children learn familiar words and phrases which they can use in a variety of contexts. They also recognise root words and cognates to help them appreciate the similarities between French and English.
· Grammar: This underpins all areas of language learning and enables children to express themselves with greater accuracy and spontaneity, leading to more independence in structuring their own sentences.
Children will develop a genuine interest and positive curiosity about foreign languages, and develop a deeper understanding of other cultures and the world around them
The impact of our curriculum is under constant review and development to ensure that it appropriately meets the needs of our children, supporting and challenging pupils to achieve their full potential.
Our curriculum is regularly monitored by:
- Assessing children’s existing understanding and vocabulary, before and after the unit is taught.
- Assessing children’s’ learning behaviours working towards an objective such as confidence, engagement, self-motivation, resilience, curiosity.
- Moderation of effective planning and lesson sequences.
- Summative assessment of children’s discussions about their learning.
- Assessment of recorded work, which may include work in books, images of practical activities, electronic work stored on Google Classroom.
- Interviewing the children about their learning (pupil voice).
- Moderation staff meetings where children’s books are scrutinised and there is the opportunity for a dialogue between teachers to understand their class’s work.