Vision
At Bank View, our MFL curriculum intends to develop an interest in and thirst for learning other languages. The core language taught at Bank View is Spanish. We believe that the learning of a language provides a valuable educational, social and cultural experience for our children. We believe that learning another language gives children a new and broader perspective on the world, encouraging them to understand their own cultures and those of others, which feeds into our whole school ethos where many religions and cultures are represented. In addition, children develop oracy skills, such as pronunciation and intonation through engaging in Spanish conversation. We want our children to have no limits to what their ambitions are and grow up wanting to be a translator, tour guide, travel agents or language bloggers. Spanish lessons use song and repetition to recap and embed prior knowledge and introduce new vocabulary.
Intent
KS2 children follow a themed programme of learning over the year, allowing the pupils to build their vocabulary within a given theme and then explore the practical use of this language through speaking, listening, reading and writing activities. The children are given opportunities to practice their skills through a range of activities, with adaptations allowing pupils to use the same vocabulary in simpler or more complex sentences according to their ability, ensuring they can all succeed in communicating, without putting a ceiling on what they can achieve. Through MFL, we help to promote protected characteristics.
Implementation
During MFL lessons, children are introduced to vocabulary within a given theme. This is built upon over a sequence of lessons, with some overlapping of themes between year groups to build on prior learning. Each lesson includes an oral introduction to encourage children to build their confidence in oral communication through the practice of prior learning. Activities are then structured to incorporate a range of different skills across the course of the term moving from speaking and listening skills initially to reading and writing, developing their knowledge of phonics and grammar and comparing it to English as well as introducing aspects of intercultural understanding. The many overlaps with the English curriculum such as etymology, phonics and grammar stimulate their interest and inquisitiveness about their own language through spotting similarities and differences. Each lesson builds on the previous one and gives the children the opportunity to develop their knowledge of the language.
In the EYFS and KS1, through exploring different countries in the world, we take the opportunity to learn a little bit of the language of the countries they are learning about. We also encourage children with EAL to share their language, teaching their peers some vocab.
Impact
MFL is modelled to ensure that the children are taught to pronounce words correctly and confidently. Staff can seek support if required from a language specialist who works at the school. The themed approach allows pupils to build on prior learning, whilst ensuring that pupils of all abilities can explore and manipulate the language to build their confidence and give them a positive introduction to MFL. We use our assessment domain sheets to record the progress of intended outcomes.
