Intent
What does French look like at High Ercall?
As the UK is becoming an increasingly multicultural society, we have a duty to provide our children with an understanding of and knowledge about other cultures and languages. The Language provision at Key Stage 2 in High Ercall Primary School is designed to reflect this and meet the expectations of the the primary foreign languages entitlement as set out in the National Curriculum 2014.
The intent of our Language Curriculum is that:
- Our language learning is inclusive and accessible for all to enable all the children to learn more and remember more.
- We will give our children a clear starting point for a school career in learning languages - to enable our children to continue their learning in French at our main feeder school – The Charlton Academy.
- It is taught as a coherent programme from year 3 to year 6 – building substantive knowledge to enable the children to speak, read and write in French by Year 6.
- The taught substantive knowledge is: phonics, key vocabulary and grammar. With clear sequencing and regular practise and retrieval, the children build their knowledge and understanding of the French language to meet the requirements of the National Curriculum.
- The children will build their disciplinary knowledge of languages and how they are structured to apply this learning to other language in later life
- The children learn and know about French life and culture.
Our curriculum has been built to include our key curriculum drivers:
- our school values, the 5Rs - these are used in all our teaching and learning
- the role of active learning - learning in French is active and focuses initially on speaking and listening activities before building into reading and writing using taught sentence stems
- building our children’s understanding of diversity. It is important that we give all children the chance to learn a language to gain insights into their own lives and those of others around the world. They then can learn about people in other countries and cultures and reflect upon their own cultural identities and those of other people.
In our curriculum we have also considered the journey of a child through the school, so that our curriculum is progressive, building on prior learning, and regularly revisiting taught concepts. Each class has a two year rolling programme using Primary Language Network as an online curriculum. The curriculum has been built specifically to match the needs of our school and the structure of our classes, using units of learning from the online scheme.
What do we want children to be able to do by the end of Year 6?
The Languages provision at Key Stage 2 in High Ercall Primary School will enable our children to meet the expectations as set out in the National Curriculum 2014, by the time they reach Year 6. We have chosen to study French because it is taught at our main feeder schools, Charlton Academy in Wellington and Thomas Adams in Wem.
In liaison with these schools, we have used staff training from their French teachers to build our curriculum and enable our children to achieve beyond their expectations of children entering in Year 7.
By the end of Year 6, we intend that our curriculum:
- Fosters an interest in learning another language;
- Develops speaking and listening skills;
- Will enable children to apply and develop their knowledge of languages and providing a foundation for language learning;
- Develop substantive knowledge to apply to speaking, reading and writing in French
- Allows most children to gain enjoyment, pride and a sense of achievement;
- Helps children to explore other cultures and fosters an interest in languages and living in different countries
How will this support the children in lifelong learning?
Learning French, and learning about the countries where it is spoken, increases children’s knowledge and understanding of the world and can promote aspiration for travel and a broadening of life experience.
The knowledge and skills pupils acquire in languages lessons are translated across other subjects in the primary curriculum, particularly reading and writing. There is a core understanding of how sentences are constructed and different word classes are used within reading and writing. As the children move into secondary schools, they will apply their disciplinary knowledge to any taught language.
Speaking and listening skills are all covered in depth through the Languages curriculum. These opportunities enhance both children’s confidence and ability in these areas, equipping children with communication skills they will draw upon throughout their school career and in later life.
Implementation
How is the curriculum for French organised?
At High Ercall we teach French each week in Key Stage 2.
The planning developed for KS2 will target objectives taken from the National Curriculum 2014. Each class in KS2 has a 2-year rolling programme. This is sequenced carefully to build upon taught substantive knowledge in phonics, vocabulary and grammar, each building on learning from the previous year ensuring progression and each contributing to a secure development of the National Curriculum objectives. We use the ‘Primary Language Network’ online resource for teaching and learning resources – which supports all teachers including those who are not experts in speaking French.
Teachers also ensure that learning in French is not exclusive to Language lessons but a part of the school routine. This enables our pupils to use their French knowledge in different contexts and repetition of key phrases increases the long-term memory, essential for lifelong learning.
How do we teach French?
There is a set taught French session in Class 3, 4 and 5 timetabled for half an hour each week. This ensures that there is formal instruction, regular practise and constant retrieval of taught vocabulary, grammar and phonics.
The lessons are organised in different parts: a warm-up / review of prior learning, grammar/phonics practise and introduction of topic vocabulary. The children may record their learning if there is a written objective outcome in that lesson.
Teachers also provide revision of previous learning through use of mind maps, questioning and mini quizzes. Our long-term planning ensures coverage of objectives and the medium-term planning details cross curricular links and the sequence of lessons to ensure progression of skills and knowledge.
Supporting children with additional needs
Our children with any additional needs access the same high quality teaching and learning in French as their peers. Our curriculum is fully inclusive and supported by our well trained staff.
Where necessary an adapted curriculum is fully planned to take into account individual needs within the high quality whole class teaching. In French, this could mean that a child:
- has a scribe to support with recording
- use alternative methods of recording such as speech to text technology
- has extra time to help with processing and organising ideas
This is monitored by our SENDCO - Sarah Roberts - and parents are fully engaged and involved.
Please see the folders below with the schemes of work for each class.
Impact
How do we review learning in French?
Assessment in Languages is carried out within the lessons as part of ongoing teaching and learning and is guided by the National Curriculum Framework, supported by resources from the Primary Language Network. Most assessment will be through questioning and discussion, and verbal feedback during lessons.
All of our staff, senior leaders and Governors are involved in measuring the impact of our languages curriculum in differing ways. This is planned through the School Development Plan, using our annual monitoring cycle and termly development plan to map out monitoring and review over the year.
Sarah Roberts, is our Languages Subject Leader. There is a clear monitoring cycle in place which evaluates languages teaching and learning, outcomes, pupil and parent voice. These outcomes feed into action planning to continually evaluate and improve our teaching and learning in reading.
Recent Governor monitoring (July 22) through pupil voice found that:
Question: what have you been learning about?
C5 have been learning about café culture and different foods. They have enjoyed learning about the different cultures around the world and like the idea of being able to speak with French speaking people. They have completed a piece of writing (in French) about their day, including the times, and what they’ve eaten.
C4 have been learning about body parts, directions, creating a poster for extra-terrestrials, weather systems, ice cream flavours and creating a menu for the ice cream. They have enjoyed learning the links between the English and French languages.
C3 have been learning about fruits, manners, and story telling, including page numbers. They have been learning by completing word searches, colouring fruit, and have found it to be fun.
Question: how does your teacher know what you already know?
C5 – they recap previous lessons at the start of each lesson, and if they have forgotten, they redo the lesson.
C4 – At the start of term, they review everything they learned in the previous term. They have a mind map on the wall, and mind maps in their books, which act as an aide memoir for them.
C3 – they have a mind map (the children showed me a photograph of their mind map on the classroom wall on the class iPad). There are pictures of things they have learned.
Question: Are you making progress? How do you know?
C5 – They use LOSC’s which are a list of targets for the children, and they are marked with an arrow for developing and a star for achieved, by seeing the change of arrows to stars they know they are achieving their targets. They also talked about the French books in the library and how they can now read some of them.
C4 – Yes! They can say a lot more in French now.
C3 – Being able to correctly say a word means they are improving. Their teacher speaks to them in French, they read the PowerPoint presentation which is in French and the teacher gives them clues to help guess a word if they are unsure.
It’s very clear to see that the children are enjoying learning French and were happy to demonstrate some of their learning to me.
Other Monitoring and evaluation could include:
- A review of learning in books
- Lesson observations
- Evaluation of the impact of staff professional development - including the support from expert teachers at our feeder secondary schools
- A review of medium term planning
- Talking to pupils and parents about learning in Languages
- Governor review trails to evaluate the impact of the curriculum - this could be reviewing the website or the curriculum offer, talking to staff and pupils